THE MIGHTY OAK
THE IMAGE OF A CELLAR bulging with wooden barrels is the embodiment of everything viniferous. And yet, as far as the New World is concerned, surprisingly, the oak barrel is a relatively new winemaking tool. Cooperage, the art of making barrels, is a trade that is at least 800 years old, with the required skills being passed on from master cooper to apprentice down through the generations.
Oak barrels had been used for winemaking in Bordeaux and Burgundy for several hundred years but the technique of fermenting or ageing in oak didn’t really emerge as a widespread winemaking device in the New World until the 1970s, when American winemakers such as Robert Mondavi embraced the French techniques for chardonnay and cabernet; a catalyst that changed the use of oak barrels from a fairly limited French provenance to a global one.
