Shoot reaching out to the sun

I always say that spring is the second best time of the year (the first is harvest in the fall.)

Watching the new shoots reach for the sun, performing their annual miracle painting the vineyard green, sprouting from the brown, dead looking trunks, never ceases to amaze me.

Tiny baby clusters appear and the leaves open up, spread and gorge on the sun.

This is also the time of the year when planting replacement vines happen.  Some of the old vines are too tired and can barley produce a cluster or two each year. We plant new, young vines in the field, right next to the old ones.  It will be three years before the new vines will produce any meaningful fruit, under the watchful eyes of their elders.

New vines receive protection from frost and bunnies with an old milk carton and sawdust.

My visit was arranged with the help of Moke from Mel Knox Barrles, the San Francisco based barrel broker for Francois Freres and others. Thank you Moke.

The narrow streets of Saint-Romain

Winding my way up the narrow curvy road to Saint Romain with my brother, I could not help but wonder why they chose to establish the cooperage in such a remote location.  We had to pull over to the side of the road every time a small truck passed by and I wondered how bigger trucks, which carry thousands of barrels a year from the cooperage, got through.  The answer to that came a bit later from Gregory, my gracious tour guide at Francois Freres.

Arriving at the cooperage one first notices the wonderful smell of  freshly baked bread, the barrel toasting room is right up front, for all to see and smell.

We started at the yard, where logs purchased at auction from ONF (the French government agency responsible for french forests) lay down waiting their turn to be hand split.

The raw material waiting in the yard

Greory pointed out the importance of tight wood grain, the primary consideration when bidding on logs at auctions. Here the smell  is vastly different, natural oak, strong and spicy.

tight grain oak

The logs are cut to various lengths, one meter primarily for the 228 liter barrels, 1.05 for 300 liters etc.

The logs then make their way to the splitting specialist, who after years of practice, can balance splitting staves with the tightest grain while optimizing the amount of wood used.  According to Gregory, only about 20% of each log can be used for barrels. The rest is used for heating the cooperage, for fire for shaping the barrels and for fire for toasting the barrels. We visited during the “Great Cold’ of Europe, 24 degrees Fahrenheit, so we were thankful for said heating.

Hand splitting logs

After splitting, the staves are shaved and stacked in a criss cross manner to allow air to circulate and then moved out to the yard again for 2-3 years of air drying, or seasoning.

Air drying, or seasoning of the staves takes 2-3 years

During this air drying time, the staves lose about 80% of their weight from water loss;  harsh green tannins leach out and the wood gets ready to be shaped into barrels.

A special laser-guided saw trims each stave to a proper curve to allow it to fit to snugly to its neighbor when the staves are put together to form a barrel. One wide, one narrow, are put in layers next to each other where each layer will form one barrel later on.

In the barrel forming area, all the staves that form a barrel are connected together, by hand, using temporary hoops. Water is sprayed and the wood is heated up to allow it to bend into shape.  Hoops are pushed down the ‘skirts’ as the wood becomes more pliable to form the barrels. The fire you see in this picture is for forming purposes, toasting comes later.

Shaping the barrels

Toasting the barrels must have been the best job on the day we visited, the temperature outside was 24F.  We landed on what the French call the “Grand Froid.”  All of Europe was frozen.

I asked Gregory if they have a set time or a formula for the various barrel toast options available, Medium toast, Heavy toast, Long Toast etc.  This is where he said he chuckles when he hears other coopers describe in exact minutes and degrees each toasting level.  It is impossible, he said, because the wood can be drier or more humid, depending on where it was in the stack, humidity that day, or the exact heat of the fire can be different–they can’t be that exact. That is why we have Frederic he said, after years of toasting, he can tell by smell and looks exactly when to pull a barrel off the fire.  Talk about hand crafted barrels, it is an art indeed.

Toasting barrels

Each barrel is made to order with the various factor combinations, wood origin, drying time, toast level, head toast, chestnut or metal hoops, engraving etc. Then there are some American wineries who buy their own wood in order to maximize the euro exchange rate. Mind boggling.

Monitoring toast level

After toasting, the heads are fitted in and the permanent hoops are put on.  Again, a cooper whose sole task it is to maximize wood selection for the heads is busy matching head staves.

Heads are fitted to the barrels and where the groove and the head meets the barrel is sealed with a special paste  made of fine wood shavings, water and flour. This was fine for about 90 years until recently concerns were raised about gluten ending up in the wine.  Francois Frere was ready with an alternative  solution due to a request from a Golan Hights winery in Israel, not to use flour in the paste so they can have a kosher for passover wine.

Fitting heads and hoops

Water leak test under pressure

The barrels are wetted with water and pressure is applied to test for leaks.  Here, Gregory points out the heads lowering as the pressure is released.

Logo engravings by a laser follow suit and the barrels are wrapped and placed in a conditioned storage room, ready to be shipped around the world.

The importance of Terrior on barrel making explained

So, I asked Gregory, why Saint-Romain? Isn’t it difficult for trucks to get in and out, a bit out of the way?

His answer basically came down to Terrior. The weather in Saint-Romain facilitates air drying of the wood in a unique way, which contributes to the final wine characteristics.  So much so, that they have conducted a blind wine tasting where the only difference was the location of the wood drying (they have a Bordeaux location) and could tell the difference.   With such attention to details and super craftsmenship, no wonder the top domains of Budgundy are all using Francois Freres barrels.

We are glad to be in that company.

It's always a good time for a glass of Chassagne Montrachet

Of course, being in Burgundy and getting close to lunch my gracious hosts could not help but open a bottle of a 2007 Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru les Chenevottes, made especially for Monsieur Francois by one of his local barrel customers.  A perfect ending for a perfect tour.

Join the winemakers of Stomping Girl for a holiday

Winery Pop Up

Complimentary wine tasting and gift bottles available for purchase

Saturdays in December

3:00 – 5:00 pm

@

1820 Fourth St, Berkeley

]]> http://blog.stompinggirlwines.com/2011/12/01/holiday-winery-pop-up-saturdays-in-december/feed/ 0 stompinggirl stomping_girl_color_Ruby_red ZUTlogo http://blog.stompinggirlwines.com/2011/10/06/harvest-2011/ http://blog.stompinggirlwines.com/2011/10/06/harvest-2011/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:17:39 +0000 stompinggirl http://blog.stompinggirlwines.com/?p=2376 ]]> Click to view slideshow.Harvest came late and fast this year.  Late ripening fruit and forecasted rains early this week led to a mad race to harvest the thinner-skinned varietals (such as Pinot and Chard) early Monday October 3rd before rain could cause any damage.

Click to view slideshow.

• June 9,  Pinot Day’s “Kickoff Tasting” at Bar Adagio, 6-8 pm, 550 Geary St., SF.  Stomping Girl will be joined by Zotovich, Calstar, Adastra and Argot in pairing our Pinots with some incredible, pinot-focused appetizers.
• June 16, Pinot Days/AIWF Winemakers “Table Hop” Dinner 6:30 at Scala’s Bistro, 432 Powell Street, SF.  One of us will be pouring Stomping Girl along with about a dozen other Pinot Noir producers at this spectacular winemaker dinner.
• June 18th, Grand Festival, 1pm-5pm, at the Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason Center.  220 artisan winemakers will be pouring their best.

Response to our plans to offer a wine club has been enthusiastic and we are happy to officially announce the Stomping Girl Wine Club!  We anticipate this will be a perfect way to maintain close relationships with our customers and be able to offer you the best possible discounts and benefits. 

No need to swallow each and every of the 300+ wines available for tasting!  Saturday was crazy busy and people got a little sloppy (to put it nicely) by the end of day.  Sunday, however, was a lot more sane.

Here are some photos of us, our awesome volunteers and the crowd.