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p r a c t i c a l w i n e r y & v i n e ya r d n O v e M B e r 2 0 1 4 111 b O O k e X C e R P T Below is an excerpt from chapter one of Wood, Whiskey and Wine, available from University of Chicago Press (cloth, 224 pages, $35) or via amazon.com. Wooden barrels have been arguably the most significant shipping container in history. They served Romans, explor- ers, pilgrims, pirates, pioneers and sam- urai through 2,000 years of civilization. —Diana Twede, "The Cask Age: The Technology and History of Wooden Barrels" Wooden barrels were, and are, bulk containers. Travelers of 150 years ago on a sailing ship, a steam train or a horse- drawn coach would have filled their own glass bottles or leather canteens from water stored in a wooden barrel. On sailing ships, when not on duty, sailors often hung around the water-stor- age barrel to get a drink and to chat (a forerunner of our modern-day sessions at the office water cooler). The barrel around which they congregated was usually placed on the deck near a hatch that was known in naval terms as a scuttle. Most barrel sizes have specific names, and this large barrel was called a butt. The conver- sation, or scuttlebutt, that ensued took its name from the location and the barrel. Though the barrel is long gone, the term lives on as a word for gossip. Barrels were also the container of choice for a wide range of other com- modities. Before the use of individual pockets in cardboard or plastic trays, apples were packed in what were called slack barrels—that is, wooden barrels that were not liquid-tight. Bulk nails and gunpowder were stored in small barrels called kegs. Because nails needed little protection from the elements, they would have been packaged in "slack" kegs, while the gunpowder was kept dry by being sealed in a tight barrel, the gen- eral term for water-tight cooperage. Salted meat was packed in hogsheads (340-liter barrels) that were slightly larger than the typical wine or bourbon barrel. Over the centuries, an enormous range of products were transported and stored in barrels: animal hides and skins, beer, cement, cheese rennet, cider, coconut oil, coins, cornmeal, crackers, flour, grains, green ginger, molasses, palm oil, paint, petroleum products, pickles, potatoes, putty, salt, salted fish, salted meats, seeds, sugar, syrup, tar, tobacco, vinegar, whale oil, whiskey, wine and even linens and crockery, cushioned in straw. The barrels for these diverse commodities were all roughly similar in shape—the bulbous cylinder with flat ends—but varied con- siderably in size and the type of wood used for their construction. Most acquired their own specific names and identities. In the 18th and 19th centuries, portions of America's bountiful cod, harvested off the New England coasts, were dried, salted and packed in barrels to be sent to England and Europe. At the height of the United States' Chesapeake Bay oyster harvest, barrels of oysters were shipped across the country by railroad. Many households in the Midwest or on the Pa- cific coast had a barrel of Chesapeake oysters in the cellar. Nineteenth- and 20th-century French homes may also have had a barrel of oys- ters, plucked from the cold Atlantic wa- ters, in their cellars and would certainly have had a barrel or two of wine, quietly aging. In Great Britain a pint at the local pub would have been drawn from a barrel. From the time of the early Roman Em- pire until the early 20th century, a num- ber of factors meant that the wooden barrel was favored as the bulk container of choice. Before aluminum and plastic, wooden barrels provided a water-tight container. Before tin and steel, wooden barrels offered protection against the depredations of rats. Before collapsible cardboard boxes, wooden barrels could be shipped unassembled, or knocked- down, and then assembled prior to pack- ing or filling. When unused, they could be knocked-down again to await reuse. Before forklifts, barrels containing heavy products such as water or salted meat could be easily rolled up ramps into ships or wagons. The barrels nested tightly against one another in the holds of ships or, when turned upright, re- mained relatively steady throughout the journey. In the late 1850s, the first wells were successfully drilled to extract petroleum Why wooden barrels? A 1907 postcard mailed from Rochester, Kent, shows the hooks used to grab barrels to load or unload them from ships and barges. Henry Work BY