I am having a bit of an obsession with oak barrels recently. Went to a wonderful tasting at Brane-Cantenac last week where I tasted different coopers and different toasts of barrels on the same wine samples (I have been meaning to write it up ever since).
In our local paper today (Sud Ouest), the barrel makers Sylvain have bought in auction two 370 year old oak trees to make into high quality (and no doubt high price) barrels for 'prestige chateaux'.
The aveage French oak for barrels is around 150 years old, so these are really pretty rare. The oaks were planted under Colbert in a forest in Normandy.
The trees were felled in January, and transported last week to the barrel makers in Libourne (town near St Emilion) where they will now dry out for the next few years before being turned into barrels.
Sylvain bought some similarly-aged trees in 2004 which they turned into around sixty barrels and sold for double the usual price (EUR1200 instead of EUR600) to 'crus d'elite'. The resulting barrels are also works of art, which means that after they have contained their wine, they are likely to be turned into some very expensive flower pots...
Apparently due to their age, the trees needed to be cut down, as they losing their leaves and beginning to dry out.
