Visiting a cooper

               Talking about the barrels is talking about the essence of a wine. Even if it is a Cognac or an Armagnac the barrel is essential in the winemaking process and the selection of it is primordial in view of having a certain amount of tannins, a type of colors and particular aromas.

    I had the chance to visit one of the oldest and most innovative cooper of France : Radoux Companie, and I’m glad to share with you my day trip in Jonzac, small and lovely village close to Cognac where Radoux has is unit production.

The visit begins in the unit production. Utilisation of my camera was not allowed in certain part of the visit in order to maintain the secret of high technological machineries (Chinese people are really afraid and unenthusiastic by the idea of not using their camera, anyway it’s FORBIDDEN).

During that visit it is explaining how they are working.

Major part of the raw material, the wood, is a French production of oak coming from the most famous forest of France.

The forest is managed by the ONF (Office National des Forets, who belongs to the French government) who attach importance to the survival of it and which replant consistently oak tree. The tree used are between 130 and 150 years, that’s an explication of the breathtakingly high price.

Radoux is working in a just in time production depending therefore the order of their customers (chateaux, estates, wineries, cooperative cellars).

Once the order made a long, important and meticulous work is given for the choice of the staves.

The staves:

     The staves, once they are received in Jonzac, are subject to minisious and innovative analysis. The oak must be perfect, strong and hermetic.

An exemple of default on a stave:

     Radoux has its own research & development department and is working in partnership with Bordeaux Faculty of Oenology to analyze the impact of exchange between wood and wine. 

One of their innovation is impressive: OakScan: it allows via infrared to measure polyphenol content directly on the wood. Thus we can adapt the selection of the wood to the oenological objective.

After these several explanations I have assist to the artisanal assembly of the barrel. It is such nice to see that man doing it by hand that I let you enjoy that moment by video.

That part of the production is essential. Any machinery would be able to produce it and replace the fantastic hand made work of the human. It is rare in a 30 million-turnover company working all around the world to still have an artisanal French touch. I personally support the idea and respect that work.

Another part who surprised me and which is also so important: the warming!

      Depending on how the customer want to work, different warm are propose. For example less you warm more your wine will be structuring. 

Again, that part is made by hand. The warm takes approximately 30 to 50 minutes.

Only 2% of worldwide wine production uses the oak barrels process. However, in the view of the general and international consumption tendency, that figure is going to increase.

To finish, Radoux is not only seeling barrels. They also work with “alternative”. It means that customers having a specific request can order staves giving different wine profile in function of a polyphenol rate. They have 3 differents staves: low, medium and high. That staves are uses during primary fermentation or during aging and the dosage rate is 1 or 2 staves/hl.

For information Radoux produce 55 000 to 65 000 barrels/year, that means 200/days. 

If you are looking for having more information about Radoux or want to visit it please find all the informations on their web site

See you next week for a new article Around a Glass, Cheers !