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WINERY & VINEYARD EQUIPMENT 56 WINES&VINES March 2018 Coopers continue to design new barrels to provide structure with less new oak impact. American oak suppliers also are offering more high-quality barrels built with staves that have undergone several years of seasoning and are sourced from specific forests. Other coopers are offering new toasts and wood types in 2018, and one supplier unveiled a new barrel specifically designed for high-alcohol wines produced in warmer, drier regions. The Wines & Vines Product Focus feature is not intended to provide a definitive listing of all available products in a particular segment or provide any comparative analysis, but rather serve as an overview of what's new or available and also of potential interest to readers as determined by the magazine's editorial staff. PRODUCT FOCUS New Barrels More water-treated options, large formats and specialty barrels from France By Andrew Adams TONNELLERIE DE MERCUREY Burgundian cooper Tonnellerie de Mercurey worked with its stave mill NT Bois and con- ducted a series of long-term tests with wineries in Bordeaux, Cali- fornia and Washington state to develop new toasts and oak se- lections for barrels to be used for Cabernet Sauvignon. The coo- per's M Prime barrel is an en- tirely new wood selection and toast intended to add "fullness and freshness" with a long, fo- cused palate. The Haute Futaie selection is meant for wines of "great dimension and density" and is a good match for the coo- perage's light and long toast. Two other existing oak selec- tions, Prestige and Nicolas, have also been updated with toasts meant for Cabernet. All of the toasts and oak selections are de- signed to "clean, lift, define and give real palate length." tonnellerie-de-mercurey.com TONNELLERIE QUINTESSENCE The Hydro Pure barrel is the lat- est addition to the Hydro-Collec- tion series of barrels by French cooperage Tonnellerie Quintes- sence, which is part of American barrel producer Independent Stave Co. The Hydro-Collection barrels are produced with staves that undergo a water-immersion treatment to extract tannin. Staves are then pre-heated be- fore undergoing a light toast. The Hydro Pure is designed to provide soft, floral notes, bal- anced texture and a subtle fin- ish. The cooper also added two new barrels built with wood from specific forests. The Es- sence de Chantilly barrel fea- tures extra fine grain from trees growing in the limestone soils of Chantilly, and the silt-clay soils of the Montpensier forest in the Allier Forest is the source for the Essence de Montpensier. tonnelleriequintessence.fr TONNELLERIE Ô California cooperage Tonnellerie Ô, which is part of Cork Supply USA, secured oak trees from the French forests of Jupilles and Tronçais for a reserve barrel pro- gram. The reserve barrels will be available in 2022. In addition to the reserve French oak, the coo- perage also introduced the Pa- triot, Heartland and Revolution barrels that are all made with American oak. The Patriot is pro- duced with a blend of wood from mills in the Appalachian Moun- tains, Minnesota and the Ozarks and seasoned for 24 months. The Heartland is made with 36- month aged wood from Virginia, Minnesota and Missouri, and the Revolution is made with 60- month wood and only available through allocation in 2020. tonnellerieo.com TONNELLERIE VINEA Available through The Boswell Co., the new Eclat Hydro barrels from master cooper Jean-Chris- tophe Varron and Tonnellerie Vinea in France, are produced with French oak staves that are steamed using magnetized water in a pressurized, high-tempera- ture tank for 30 minutes. After the "hydro" treatment, the staves are bent without fire and toasted via proprietary ceramic radiant- heat technology. The fine-grain barrels are toasted and produced without ever coming in to contact with flames. The Boswell Co. re- ports the barrels provide "an ex- ceptionally smooth, fluid, elegant contribution to the wine, and the profile exceeds the fruit preserva- tion of other French oak barrels in the low-toast spectrum." boswellcompany.com MICHEL JOLY Tonnellerie de Mercurey