In ancient times, various types of wood such as acacia, eucalyptus, chestnut, cherry, palm, pine and cedar were used to make wine vessels of all kinds. Wooden barrels were hardly known in ancient Greece, but the historian Herodotus (482-425 B.C.) reports that they were made from palm wood in the city of Babylon. The Celts were probably already using wooden barrels for transport two to one thousand years before the Common Era. This skill was then adopted by the Romans.
The most suitable type of wood for making wooden barrels for winegrowing is oak. It is one of the hardest woods, is tough, very durable and also easy to work with. In addition, the type of ring-shaped pores prevents liquids from passing through the wood. This is ideal for the construction of all kinds of containers, especially barrels. Oak wood has a natural affinity for wine. This was recognised early on in France and has been used for centuries for the barrique type of barrel created in Bordeaux.
Types of oak
There are around 300 species of oak worldwide, but only three species of white oak belonging to the Quercus genus are used for wooden barrels. Two of them grow in Europe. These are the winter oak, holm oak or sessile oak (Quercus sessiliflora or petraea), and the summer oak or pedunculate oak (Quercus robur or pedunculata).
The third is the American white oak (Quercus alba) with numerous species. As a rule, American oak produces wines with a stronger astringency and flavour than European oak. For the sake of completeness, the oak species Quercus suber, from whose bark corks are made, should also be mentioned.
Origin
Until the beginning of the 20th century, oak wood mainly came from Poland, Latvia and Estonia. Today, the wood comes mainly from France and North America. American oaks of the Quercus alba species grow mainly in the dry forests of eastern North America. The most important producing states in the USA are Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Oaks from Croatia (Slavonia), Romania, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Hungary are also increasingly being used. Small quantities also come from Austria (Manhartsberg and Ybbstal in Lower Austria) and Germany.
French oak
French oak is considered the best in the world due to its fine flavours and is used most frequently in Europe. The areas of origin are not too humid and the soils do not contain iron. The two European oak species relevant for barrel making cover over four million hectares (40,000 km²). This makes France by far the largest supplier of oak wood. Around 200,000 barrique barrels are produced annually by the tonnelleries.
The most common designations listed refer to the origin. However, as there is no Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) for oak wood, it is not possible to deduce the exact origin from the name under which the wood is marketed....
