Wines & Vines

February 2018 WINES&VINES 39 OAK BARRELS the wood should be seasoned in an environ- ment similar to where the oak trees grow, to encourage the humidity and beneficial micro- flora (bacteria and microscopic fungi) that do most of the work of seasoning. "The maintenance of the biological popu- lation throughout the 24- or 36-month pe- r i o d i s t h e a b s o l u t e k e y t o h a v i n g well-seasoned wood," Molnar said. The Taransaud team did numerous experiments to see how best to protect staves from ex- tremes of weather and climate change and support the microflora—trying fences, shade covers and other methods—but fi- nally observed that the most effective solu- tion was to have trees nearby. "They are now planting trees around their stave yard in Cognac," he said. "We already had trees, so we decided let's put our oak as close to the trees as possible to maintain this enve- lope of biology around us." The Kádár stave mill is on the edge of the village with forest on two sides, so Kádár bought an 8-acre piece of the adjoining woodland and laid out a park-like setting with islands of trees, next to which the logs may rest for three to six months—and the stave wood longer. Kádár puts a lot of em- phasis on keeping the wood humidified. There is no pavement or gravel, just a natural earth surface that releases moisture back into the air after rains. A few other steps in the barrel-making process also distinguish Kádár barrels. The coopers do a long, slow toasting of the bar- rels over oak wood fires and use a sensor that Kádár developed to measure the tem- perature inside the staves so they know ex- actly when to stop. The slow toast matches the already highly aromatic nature of Hun- garian oak, Molnar said. "We emphasize high tones and get away from toastiness. Deep, heavy toasting can dampen the barrel's abil- ity to preserve freshness and tension in the wine. We have progressively gone for lower firing temperatures over time." The evolution of Kádár's barrels and bar- rel-making practices represent improvements seen across a wide swath of the cooperage industry in Hungary. In fact, they're not a bad example for the Hungarian wine indus- try and economy in general. Winemakers in North America had some disappointing ex- periences with Hungarian barrels in the 1990s and 2000s, but those are now fading into the past, and a look at the forests and cooperages of the ancient winemaking coun- try shows how Hungarian barrels have earned a place in the barrel programs of so many wineries today. STAINS OF WAR S ometimes the saws of the loggers and of the stave mill uncover reminders of the wars that raged through Hungary in the past century. Pieces of shrapnel and bullets were lodged in many trees during the two world wars. They cause dark stains within the wood, and if a saw hits a metal fragment, it can ruin the blade.

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