Work commences on the barrels

I am now in a place called Saints, where the cooperage is, staying with one of the owners of the cooperage. His name is Nico and his wife’s name is Sev. They have two children named Seb and Ocean. Today was my first day in the cooperage. It is amazing how many steps it takes to make a wine barrel. To sum it up shortly and without overstepping my knowledge; they start with big oak trees that the cooperage orders. These are brought to the cooperage in a piece about 20ft long and about as round as a beach ball with the bark still attached. They are split into pieces that are then aged for about 3 years outside. They are then brought into the cooperage and planed again. They are now ready to become a part of a barrel. A cooper will make the original form of a barrel using these pieces and metal rungs that keep the shape of the barrel. They are pounded into place with hammers and chisels. The barrels are then toasted for about 15min and then are placed under a machine that does something with barrels to insure they are water/air tight. They use water and high pressure to check. The insides are let to dry out. The barrels as this point are not good looking and clean, so the next step is to chisel and sand the barrels as will to remove the shaping metal rungs and secure the metal rungs that we see on the barrels. This is all done by one man with a machine that looks like a huge apple peeler (the ones that hold the apples sideways and as the apple twists the skin is removed by a metal blade). The same principle is used, but the apple skin remover is a man with a planer. The metal rungs are hammered on while the barrel is spun to insure they are not sideways. Then the barrel is branded with the cooperage's logo -- this is literally done by a person holding a branding iron. The finishing touches are what I specialized in: I sanded off all the small subtle imperfections (mainly where the apple peeler had missed) and some writing on the barrel to mark certain specifications. The barrels are then packaged and sent out!

I started off my day bending the metal that is going to hold the barrel together. It comes in huge circular spools that you cut into about 6ft pieces of metal. I then would put this long piece of thin metal into a machine that would bend it to a perfect setting. I would check it against a barrel about ever 20th time. After shaping about 160 wine barrel rungs, I then became the sanding master. I received the barrels after the brand and begin to sand the whole barrel, for the most part. It is very time consuming and needs to be done with care or else you can scratch the metal on the barrel. I would use one piece of sandpaper on my sander per barrel, so they were constantly well sanded.

Not too many people in the cooperage speak very good English or ever English at all, so I am getting very good at using my body to communicate what I am trying to say. I am also picking up some useful phrases, for example “I understand or j’ai compris” & “je peux faire ca or I can do that.”

I have also been told that next week I am going to Scotland to set up a whiskey distillery with one of the cooperage's new ways to stack barrels that they call OXO 2. I think that the team will be about 5 strong. I was told that they do about 95% (if not more) of their business with the wine industry, but since distilleries don’t buy new barrels, because it flavors the whiskey like oak in wine, they buy the OXO line.

I am still having problems finding places with working Internet so I will try to keep you updated ASAP.

--Drew