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BARRELS far, the most common custom request is American body with French heads." When asked if this request is driven by cost savings or style, he said that it is all style-based. "More winemakers are responding to consumer demands that respect the fruit," he said. Standard toasting profiles range from medium to medium-plus or heavy toast for American oak, and the heads are toasted or not, depending on the wine- maker's style. According to Peltereau-Villeneuve, "Winemakers wait until after harvest to see what their juice tastes like before they decide on a toasting profile." Untoasted French oak heads will contribute more oak tannins. Toasted heads lessen the structural contributions of oak tannins, imparting more toast flavor qualities to the wine. Recently, Seguin Moreau received a 60-barrel order for heavy toast Ameri- can oak bodies with heavy toast Russian oak heads. Peltereau-Villeneuve said that Russian oak "adds freshness to the wine." With a turnaround time of one day at the cooperage, the Napa-based winemaker could potentially rack into his custom hybrid barrels within 48 hours. trust cooperage's szigetvar oak seasoning yard in Hungary, where wood is air dried for two to three years. tailored wood Mel Knox, a veteran barrel broker based in San Francisco, Calif., has many customers who buy wood futures in exchange for the ability to dictate how the staves are seasoned and for how long. The industry standard for naturally seasoned, air-dried wood aging ranges from 30 to 36 months. However, for styles requiring softer wood tannins, some clients request 40 months. Since there isn't a high demand for wood aged this long, an initial investment is required. Knox said that 5,000-case Rhys Vine- yards of San Carlos, Calif., "gets four-year air-dry from Francois Freres by buying the wood in advance. "We have many customers who buy their wood in advance. Next to species, air-dry- ing is the most important thing to consider in overall wood quality. This is empirically understood by coopers," Knox said. Rhys Vineyards purchases uncoopered stave wood that has been air-dried for four full years in Burgundy. According to the winery's website, barrel decisions are made with two goals in mind: "very consistent barrels year after year, and wines that are differentiated entirely by the vineyard and not by the barrel. The resulting barrels are extremely gentle and help raise our wine with pure fruit rather than noticeable oak flavor." Jeff Brinkman, winemaker at Rhys, re- marked that there are no cost savings in this approach; it is practiced purely for style. "There are less obvious oak influences, providing mid-palate texture and lift for the fruit. It's tough nowadays, but we put our order in four years in advance, and we pay for a percentage up front at the current euro rate and pay a coopering fee at the time of cooperage." Brinkman feels that if more four-year aged wood were readily available, it would be more popular. Two years ago, we told the world we could replicate the fl avors of a French oak barrel by alternative means. Experts balked, then proved our point in blind tastings, actually choosing our fl avors over those of prestigious French barrels. We didn't stop there. Today we' re offering the tools to recreate fl avor profi les of a whole range of different barrels. Whether they come from France or Kentucky, Hungary or Spain. Never before have winemakers had such a wide array of fl avor controls at their command. ® StaVın Inc, P.O.Box 1693, Sausalito,CA 94966 (415) 331-7849 f (415) 331-0516 stavin.com Wines & Vines FeBRUARY 2011 35 TRUST COOPERAGE © 2010 StaVin Inc.