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BARRELS Milling Staves in Minnesota I n 1967, Norbert Staggemeyer purchased a sawmill near the small town of Caledonia, Minn., located in the southeastern corner of the state near the borders of Wisconsin and Iowa. The mill originally was built to supply staves for Seagram's whiskey barrels. Norbert Staggemeyer and his son Mike, who owns the mill today, had been cutting logs from the nearby hardwood forests for years when, around 1990, a visitor from California arrived. It was Keith Roberts, then the master cooper with the now-defunct Mendocino Cooperage. Fetzer winery was on the hunt for American oak, and Roberts had traced a line of latitude from the oak forests of France to southern Minnesota. Finding the Staggemeyer's mill in the region, he decided to pay them a visit and see if they'd be willing to try cutting staves for wine barrels. "My dad and I looked at each other and said, 'What's he talking about?'" Mike Staggemeyer recalled. Today, however, Staggemeyer believes he's lucky to be located in the northern part of America's oak forest. He said he thinks the cold Minnesota winters and soils of the region create oak trees with exceptionally tight growth rings that yield stave wood of high quality. "It seems to be the more desired oak," he said. Staggemeyer estimates he produces enough staves to build 15,000 barrels, and he's selling to between six and eight cooperages. He said his total production is split in half between staves for spirits and wine, though he thought he might be cutting slightly more staves for spirits. Local loggers cut the trees and sell to other mills in the area that know Staggemeyer will pay for quality white oak. "We're buying from other mills that buy everything," Staggemeyer said. "We'll pay more for white oak. They'll buy everything and keep the better white oak for us." The challenge is that landowners will typically wait until they are ready to cut a whole piece of property. If they don't have a buyer for red oak and other trees on their land, it isn't worth it for a crew to go in and just cut the white oak because of the rugged terrain of the forest. And lumber prices also haven't fully recovered from the recession, Staggemeyer said. "Nationwide there's a huge log- manny@boutes.com Synchronizing Wine with Wood 36 W in e s & V i ne s F E B R UARY 20 14