Roll out the barrel
During our visit to Christian Etieene’s, we were pleasantly surprised when we learnt that David Etienne, his 25 year old son, was the barrel maker, only because it was so nice to see a young chap learning such a skilful trade. It’s a trade now that can be heavily supported by machines, however David is making barrels purely by hand. He has recently won an award as the best apprentice in France., something to be really proud of.
We were keen to see the process and so were excited when David started to collect the wood he needed to start creating the barrel. Brian has described below what we saw.
The staves of the barrel are all different widths. This was surprising, but apparently that’s mostly down to the wood they are cut from. All the pieces to make the barrel though are carefully calculated to produce the exact same size barrel every time with the last piece having been cut to make the perfect fit. Two layers of staves on a wooden palette are what is needed to make one barrel. The barrel maker begins with a guide ring at the top, spacing the staves out around the inside until they all fit.
They are still quite loose at this point, so he then adds a larger, stronger ring that is hammered down tighter. A third, medium sized ring is added before the original guide is removed. The barrel maker now hammers down the staves to make them even around the rim. What he now has looks like the top portion of an inverted cone. It’s not possible at this stage to just pull the staves in to create the barrel shape, as the oak would split, so the next step is to begin shaping the staves. This is done by placing the wide base of the barrel into a loop of steel wire attached to a metal frame with a small motor over a flaming brazier.
Oak cutoffs are used to stoke the fire whilst water is sprayed around the barrel. The water allows the outside of the staves to expand and flex, while the fire inside dries the oak and shrinks it slightly. Every few minutes the motor is engaged and the steel loop tightens. After about twenty minutes or so of tightening and stoking the fire the barrel has closed up enough to allow rings to go over it.
The barrel is braced around the base with a tie and the steel loop removed. It is then rolled off of the rack and placed upside down over another brazier. The process of adding rings is repeated as before, with the addition of the third, smallest ring for the rim.
The barrel is then flipped again and the third ring is attached to the original starting point. The barrel is then left over the brazier to create the correct level of toasting inside as has been requested by the buyer. Voila, one hour, one French oak barrel.
