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112 WINES&VINES January 2018 OAK BARRELS B arrel suppliers offer many ways to customize barrels including wood origin, different ways to treat and bend staves as well as unique toasts. One winery in Napa Valley, however, isn't just customizing barrels to its needs but con- trols the entire cooperage process from stave wood to toasting. Caldwell Vineyard winery is located in a cave dug in the mountains of the Coombsville AVA in southern Napa County. John Caldwell founded the winery in 1999, after selling grapes to other Napa wineries from his name- sake vineyard for more than a decade. When Caldwell purchased his Napa Valley property in 1974, he had envisioned a real estate development, but Napa County's agri- cultural preservation ordinance nixed those plans, and he opted to plant vines instead. A trip to France—and a visit to Chateau Haut- Brion, in particular—inspired a passion for winemaking, and Caldwell has done much to emulate the venerable Bordeaux winery. Haut-Brion has its own small cooperage, and that is something Caldwell wanted to bring to Napa as well, but it took years and only came together after he was able to find some- one from the United States who could make barrels in France. Before the winery began making its own bar- rels, however, the winemaking team also adjusted how it used barrels to better match the estate wines to oak and ensure a consistent profile. Marbue Marke, director of winemaking, joined the winery in 2007, when production was much smaller and limited to just two estate wines and the second-tier label Rocket Science. Marke made some blends with the existing wines and was later struck by how the same wine fared in different barrels. "It was amazing to me that (we were using) the same barrel, same cooper, same everything, and the quality was night and day," he said. Marke shared his discovery with Caldwell. "I showed him, 'Here's your gold in the same barrel, same cooper and same amount of money, and the quality is not even remotely close," he said. "The wines tasted the same when we put them all in the same trial, so it's not us; this is not the vineyard." Caldwell and Marke organized a trip to France in 2008 to study wood sourcing and the cooperage trade to develop a better sys- tem to ensure a consistent oak program. Marke determined coopers that control their own wood sourcing generally produce better barrels. That led Caldwell to look into secur- ing his own source of timber: He could im- prove his wine through a consistent oak supply and also achieve his vision of an estate cooperage—but at the time it proved cost prohibitive, and the winery didn't have the right contacts to navigate the complex French oak industry. Marke then designed a new barrel program to help minimize risk that involved using about 10 different cooperages that control their oak sourcing. "In the three years after we made the changes, I definitely saw a huge change in our quality," he said. "We had a good system. It worked well for us, and the system was de- signed not with the idea that there was a 'best barrel,' but the idea of how do you match a barrel to the style of wine." In 2013, the winery's vineyard manager mentioned that a friend of his who had been building barrels at a Napa cooperage was look- ing for a new opportunity. Caldwell brought Ramiro Herrera in to help with barrel fermen- tations, and the two began talking about build- ing barrels for the winery. Herrera also knew Alban Petiteaux, who had worked at the same cooperage but had started his own business as an oak consultant. Through Herrera, Caldwell started working with Petiteaux, who was able to find the logs. "That was how this thing kicked off, because we had somebody who was in the sourcing busi- ness," Marke said. "The sourcing is extremely difficult. You have to know somebody who is actually certified by the French government." Petiteaux didn't only know how to purchase the wood, he also knew the master cooper who had worked in Haut-Brion's cooperage and KEY POINTS Vintner John Caldwell of Caldwell Vineyard follows the example of Chateau Haut-Brion in Bordeaux, France. His connections in the French timber in- dustry purchase wood for staves, and the winery's own master cooper, Ramiro Her- rera, toasts and assembles barrels and puncheons. Herrera spends the rest of the year work- ing in the Caldwell Vineyard winery. Bringing Cooperage In-House Napa Valley winery buys French oak to build its own barrels By Andrew Adams