French Village and Country Life
No 8: The Cooper (Barrel maker)
I have just spent a very interesting and educative November afternoon in the company of Jacques GEORGES, Cooper in the village of La Croix Blanche, Lot et Garonne (just above Agen off the N21). Jacques (pictured below as he talked to me) and his brother Didier have been Tonneliers (barrel makers) virtually all their lives ,as the business 'Tonnellerie Georges' was started by their father Gerard in 1947. A real family business, demanding highly skilled artisans, for a craft that is rapidly disappearing from the rural scene (larger, more modern 'factories' are now taking over).
Jacques GeorgesUp until the 1980s, the Tonneliers were still making Oak and Chestnut barrels in all sizes for all the local wine producers... in our case in Lot et Garonne, this mostly meant farming families making their own wine from their own small family vineyards. This was necessary when there were many farm workers on each farm, each of whom could sup through a litre of 'rouge' at lunch time !!.However, with the decline in small family vineyards and with the major wineries of Buzet, Brulhois and Duras either producing their own barrels or having the larger ones made by bigger firms, the GEORGEs had to carve a niche for themselves in the market, or go under.
Jacques and Didier modified their product range, specialising in the smaller sizes of barrel, and added plant containers as a new product to their range. Perhaps at this point, a look at the nomenclature of these barrels would be interesting. All barrels are 'tonneaux' but depending on their size ( like bottles) they have a specific name. Lets start with the smaller sizes which are called Futs, and show you the GEORGEs product range
20, 30, 55, 110 Litre Futs in Oak and Chestnut . For both wine and alcohol (eau de vie) production
Variety of sizes of 1/2 Futs which are flower containers
Barriques are 225 litre barrels for wine and are no longer made by GEORGEs, neither are:
Piéces 300 and 450 litre barrels
Demi Muid 600 litre barrels
Foudres de Vieillissement are 1000 litre plus barrels for ageing wine.MAKING A BARREL
I watched as Jacques gave me a surprisingly quick lesson in how to make a barrel. However, what looks very easy is solely because of the dexterity of someone who has been handling wood all his life. Here are the main steps in making a barrel... in this case a 50 litre Oak Fut. In fact, each barrel takes about 2 1/2 hours to make, and they turn out 5000 each year from their aniquated workshops.
1) Buying the Wood.
The GEORGEs purchase their selected wood from 'negociants' ( dealers) in the Forests of the Perigord , just to the North of the department. They stock each year, and for 12 months 180 cubic metres of Oak and Chestnut which arrives as 2.2metre Billons, which are then cut into 'planchettes' (planks) and stored outside to mature
Preparing logs
The woodstore2) Working the Planchettes
The planks are cut to lengths and are of various widths. These small lengths now have to be worked on each of their 4 faces to achieve a piece called a 'douve' that is curved in both length and breadth and tapered from middle to both ends. Try and do this by hand and it would take you a day to get one right !! The GEORGEs designed and built their own planing machine many years ago which does all this in a matter of seconds. Apparently, many of the more modern barrel makers have tried to learn the secret of their ageing machine.... without success!!3) Setting the Fires
Small wood fires are lit in upright metal containers and left to warm up
Setting the fires4) Puting the Douves together
This is the magic bit.... hold a metal ring in one hand and with the other, fit into it the douves until you have created a 'tent' of douves. Jacques does it with his eyes closed, you or me would have a pile of douves on the ground to show for our efforts. The secret is that they should fit the ring exactly.Once this is done, the steel belts of increasing circumference are slipped over the douves and hammered down into place. See below.
Putting the Douves together
Belts on !5) Firing the barrel
Now the barrel is ready for firing. It is set over one of the small fires and left to heat up for 20 minutes at 90°C. The barrel is then plunged into boiling water for 15 mins, until the wood is good and supple, ready for bending the other end into shape.
Firing the BarrelOnce supple, the barrel is upended and a special vice closes the other end. At this stage, the round barrel bottoms ('fonds') can be fitted into special grooves in the ends of the douves. The final steel belts can now be hammered into place and fixed down. A bung hole is drilled in the barrel side and a tap hole drilled in the barrel bottom.
6) The Finished Barrel
Here you can see Jacques with a finished 50 litre Fut, ready for wine making. And a beautiful object it is too.... just running your hands over the barrel tells you how much skill has gone into its' production. Also shown are some of the attractive plant containers they make.
Jacques and Finished 50 litre Fut
Flower ContainersWhat about the future, I asked Jacques GEORGES ?
Well, he reckons he has another 5 years and then his younger brother Didier will carry on another 10 years, which takes us up to 2015. However, his son is at art college in Bordeaux and will not be taking up the flame. The only other person who might possibly take over is Jacques' young nephew. Only if he decides to learn a real craft, and to work with his hands as well as his head, will the company reach its centenary.
Makes you feel like learning a real craft yourself, doesn't it ?
For further information , contact me Carl Scholfield or contact
Jacques GEORGES
TONNELLERIE GEORGES
47340 LA CROIX-BLANCHE
FRANCE
Tel: 00 33 553 68 81 23