In an effort to ensure the origin of wood that is used to make oak barrels, a French cooperage trade association has submitted a charter to the government to create "a common rule and a coherent definition" of forest designations. The charter is designed to break old habits in the cooperage industry and set more clear standards for wood origins.

The charter sets a strict standard of 100% French-grown wood for any barrel labeled or marketed as French. It allows more leeway for barrels with more specific geographic regions. (They may contain as little as 70% wood from the named region.) The charter also seeks to curtail the once-popular Tronçais and Nevers designations.

According to Philippe Rapacz of the Seguin Moreau cooperage, who sits on the board of the Fédération Français de la Tonnellerie or (FFT, the Federation of French Coopers,), the "Forest Origin and Designation Charter" aims to prevent French cooperages from labeling their barrels with French forest designations when a portion of the wood used may have come from other locations.

The FFT (tonneliersdefrance.fr) claims 43 registered coopers as members, which represent about 95% of the French cooperage industry in terms of production volume. Members include such tonnelleries as Sylvain, Saury, Vicard, Seguin Moreau, Radoux, Taransaud Beaune and Mercurey.

The FFT is hoping to clarify or curtail entirely oak barrels that carry the designation of "Tronçais" or "Nevers." That is because, according to François Peltereau-Villeneuve, the president and CEO of Seguin Moreau Napa, "It's not specific enough…because there's no forest in Nevers. If someone says, 'These trees come from the center of France,' what does center of France mean? There are six departments (or counties) in the center of France. If those trees come from one of those counties and you can prove it, then it's (from the) center of France."

The FFT sent the charter to the D.G.C.C.R.F. (a government agency that oversees business fraud) and recommended "abandoning the notion of 'type' of geographic forest designation. At the same time, the charter calls for the cooperage industry to be "more specific" about geographic origins of trees. According to the FFT, the French government "will only check that each cooper indicates on its commercial documents/website/brochures that the forest origins are clearly defined. If a cooper refers to this charter, it means that he has the obligation to comply to it; if not, he will be subject to penalties by the government."

What will be 'charter' oak?
The FFT charter advises its members to use the following principles:

French Oak: "Oak harvested 100% within the French administrative and metropolitan borders";

Oak from a given French forest region: "Oak harvested 70% within the boundaries given to that region." This means that 70% of the oak used for a barrel must be harvested inside the cadastral (or the precise mapping of the borders for each private or public property belonging to a department or town) limits of that forest; and the remaining 30% may come from another French forest.

The proposed massif (or contiguous) forest regions and the French departments (counties) within them are:

Central France: Eure et Loire, Loiret, Cher, Loir et Cher, Indre, Indre et Loire, Allier, Yonne, Côte d'Or, Nièvre, Saône et Loire, Seine Saint-Denis, Val de Marne, Yvelines, Essonne, Seine et Marne, Orne, Sarthe, Mayenne and Maine et Loire.

Limousin: Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, Creuse, Vienne and Charente.

Eastern France: Aube, Ardennes, Marne, Meuse, Moselle, Meurthe et Moselle, Bas-Rhin, Haute-Marne, Haute-Rhin, Haute Saône, Doubs, Jura and Vosges.

Northern France: Somme, Aisne, Oise, Nord and Pas-de-Calais.

Bucking the trend
While the trend now among some cooperages is to promote the grain of their wood rather than the forest, due perhaps to the proliferation of fraud, barrel manufacturers will likely, upon request from customers who ask for specific forest or area designation, follow the charter.

According to Seguin Moreau's Rapacz, the charter is "for the industry to self-regulate, but it has been dispatched to the government authorities and will be published in the main magazines and newspapers dedicated to the wine and wood industries."

While Rapacz wrote in an e-mail to Wines & Vines that all 43 members of FFT signed off on the charter, some coopers--including his own Seguin Moreau--will continue to promote the grain of their wood instead of forest origin.

A spokesperson for another cooper, Saury USA (the parent company in France is a member of FFT), was steadfast on his organization's continuing stance of the promotion of grain versus forest origin.

"From our perspective, when you go down that road to being very specific as to your wood origin, for example Bercé, what other consistencies can they (the FFT charter) provide?" asked Bayard Fox, general manager for Saury USA. "All they're (FFT) proposing is to make an appellation designation (which) is not a guarantee of quality. To provide grain and appellation would be more consistent."

To be clear, Seguin Moreau's Rapacz reiterated that if a barrel client requests forest origin or grain designation, the charter provides for either eventuality.

Saury's Fox believes the charter is only a first move toward preventing fraud, but that the proposed origin designations don't go far enough. "I think that it's a start for the general parameters, but I would add our stance would be to stick with a tight grain stamp.

"But with those four (aforementioned forest) categories, there's no romance to it. It (forest designation) has been a misguided effort from the beginning because it's deceitful. With these four categories, why bother? From the standpoint of consistency and quality, it's misinformed. We're still going to do what we've always been doing--grain trumps appellation," he continued.

"It's fine if people want to utilize these general or specific regions, but if you want to make quality (barrels) with quality woods, why not specify tight grain?"

Office National des Forêt (ONF), an organization that manages France's forests, has for years had designations regarding the origin of wood, which leads some to question the need for another government agency weighing in on the matter.

A matter of terroir
"What are these controls going to be?" asked Mel Knox, a San Francisco barrel broker who represents French coopers Taransaud and François Freres. "It strikes me that the ONF would have the best definition." He further pointed out, geography to some is "a sales point, but my feeling is that the French coopers and most winemakers don't pay the slightest bit of attention to what it says (on barrels). They don't buy Allier, they buy (the manufacturer) of barrels.

Knox agreed that if origin is going to be an issue, "Geography, for a lot of these people, goes to the whole notion of terroir. The most important thing in wine is terroir, and if you believe that, the most important thing in oak is terroir. It's the difference between selling wine and making wine. Grain types are manifestations of trees and are more important than points of origin, but when you begin to sell things…"

Seguin Moreau's Rapacz said in an e-mail, "There were at least about 20 cooperages that have been investigated in the past six to eight months by the D.G.C.C.R.F." He added, however, that these were routine investigations, since the agency is charged with ensuring that "companies manufacturing products or components or raw materials linked to the food industry (or in contact with food) are following all safety rules/norms/certifications in accordance to the French law."

The FFT is anxious to get further government sanction for wood designation and origin--one reason why Seguin Moreau, as well as others in the last few years, are self-regulating by employing the services of other non-governmental regulatory agencies.

By so doing, Seguin Moreau's Peltereau-Villeneuve pointed out, regulation will allow cooperages "to be specific, so you know exactly what you're talking about (when one sells barrels) and what you're purchasing."

He suggests that the fraud department may further be getting involved now because, "What seems to have happened, is that the D.G.C.C.R.F. apparently found out some coopers were selling some European wood as French wood. We suspect that this is what happened, but we don't know for sure, because it's not public.

"(But) we are very much in favor of making sure when a cooper says he's selling French oak, it is indeed French oak. We want to be on a fair playing field.…People are trying to get better and improve in an effort to be more transparent about what people are buying. But there are always some players who might not be as concerned with being honest with their customers."

As to the general economic state of the French tonnellerie business, in a press release issued by the FFT, the cooperage market suffered a "slight downturn" of 0.8% revenue in 2008 compared to the previous year, while the volume of barrels was down by 5% over the same period.

According to the statement, France's barrel exports were down 0.2% in revenues and off by 5% on volume from 2007 to '08.

Alan Goldfarb has contributed numerous articles to Wines & Vines, and has become something of a specialist on oak in all its tasty forms. To comment on this article, e-mail edit@winesandvines.com.

 

COMPANY	PHONE	WEBSITE
Alain Fouquet French Cooperage Inc.	(707) 265-0996	alainfouquet.com
Artisan Barrels	(510) 339-0170	artisanbarrels.com
Barrel Builders Inc.	(707) 942-4291	barrelbuilders.com
The Barrel Mill	(800) 201-7125	thebarrelmill.com
Barrels Unlimited Inc.	(562) 438-9901	barrelsunlimited.com
The Boswell Co.	(415) 457-3955	boswellcompany.com
T.W. Boswell	(707) 255-5900	twboswell.com
Brick Packaging LLC	(231) 947-4950	brickpackaging.com
Canton Cooperage Co.	(707) 836-9742	cantoncooperage.com
Carolina Wine Supply	(336) 677-6831	carolinawinesupply.com
Cooperages 1912	(707) 255-5900	cooperages1912.com
Demptos Napa Cooperage	(707) 257-2628	demptosusa.com
Gino Pinto Inc.	(609) 561-8199	ginopinto.com
IDL Process Solutions Inc.	(604) 538-2713	idlconsulting.com
Kelvin Cooperage	(502) 366-5757	kelvincooperage.com
G.W. Kent Inc.	(800) 333-4288	gwkent.com
Mel Knox Barrel Broker	(415) 751-6306	knoxbarrels.com
Louis Latour Inc.	(415) 479-4616	louislatour.com
M & M Wine Grape Co.	(877) 812-1137	juicegrape.com
Mistral Barrels Inc.	(707) 996-5600	mistralbarrels.com
Nadalie USA	(707) 942-9301	nadalie.com
Oak Tradition	(707) 318-0002	oaktradition.com
Oceans of Wine Supply Inc.	(732) 240-4993	oceansofwine.com
Pickering Winery Supply	(415) 474-1588	winerystuff.com
Premier Wine Cask	(800) 227-5625	premierwinecask.com
ReCoop Inc.	(707) 829-7103	recoop.net
Rich Xiberta USA Inc.	(707) 795-1800	xiberta.com
Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage Inc.	(707) 252-3408	seguinmoreaunapa.com
StaVin Inc.	(415) 331-7849	stavin.com
Tonelerìa Quercus	(707) 746-5704	vinoak.com
		toneleriaquercus.com
Tonnellerie Bel Air	(707) 987-8905	tonnellerie-bel-air.fr
Tonnellerie Berger & Fils	(707) 644-2822	tonnellerie-berger.com
Tonnellerie Boutes	(510) 799-1518	boutes.com
Tonnellerie de Jarnac USA	(707) 332-4524	tonnellerie-de-jarnac-16.com
Tonnellerie Garonnaise	(510) 799-1518	garonnaise.com
Tonnellerie Leroi	(707) 508-5006	leroibarrels.com
Tonnellerie Mercier	(707) 967-9645	tonnellerie-mercier.com
Tonnellerie Ô	(707) 752-6350	tonnellerieo.com
Tonnellerie Quintessence	(707) 935-3452	tonnelleriequintessence.com
Tonnellerie Radoux USA	(707) 284-2888	tonnellerieradoux.com
Tonnellerie Remond	(707) 935-2176
Tonnellerie Saury	(707) 944-1330	sauryusa.com
Tonnellerie Sirugue	(310) 452-8147	sirugue.com
Tonnellerie Sylvain	(707) 259-5344	tonnellerie-sylvain.fr/
Trust International Corp.	(561) 540-4043	barrelmakers.com
United Barrels	(707) 258-0795	unitedbarrel.com
VinOak USA	(707) 746-5704	vinoak.com
World Cooperage	(707) 255-5900	worldcooperage.com