Roll out the barrel… we’ll have a barrel of???

Today’s blog comes to you from the famous “cote Granite Rose” and features input from Mr & Mrs Eno senior.

It is no secret to my friends and family that I love whisky and as such, we have ventured 90 minutes north from the #barrelandvine to https://www.instagram.com/tonnellerie.lefloch/ #tonnellerielefloch is an artisan cooperage under the expert supervision of Benjamin, who is continuing the work of his father by making his barrels in the traditional breton way. After hours of surfing and researching, I am delighted to have settled on this tonnellerie. Benjamin offers advice and guidance along with a beautiful sense of craft and professionalism. Our whole family are delighted to have found him.

Somewhat to the amusement of the seniors, the tonnellerie is situated in an area called the abattoir. Indeed, the cooperage is actually set up in the old abattoir itself. Fortunately, there are no remnants of its previous incarnation as the cooperage is fully stocked with a variety of barrels and cooper tools/machinery. As you walk through the door Benjamin greets you with a warm smile and open face. Dressed in traditional cooperage clothes and magnificent bowler hat, Benjamin welcomed all 4 of us into his natural environment.

The first topic that needed to be covered (and the most important for Jayne) was, what size/type of barrel do we need for our wine. Well it turns out that, the age, the size and a bunch of other variables are crucial, for example we do not want a 400l because it would be too weak, we do not want a new, because it might have too much oak. So… much to the pleasure of Jayne and the seniors, we opened a few empty used casks and inhaled and guess what??? the perfect type of barrel we need for our vineyard is… an old champagne barrel!!! It is almost like we have won the jackpot, we have found our barrel and what’s more we need 8! That will total 1640 litres of divine aging space for our wine.

Char, bruler, aromatiser…

Now onto the good stuff, barrels for our distillery. So the choice is endless, ex-sherry/madeira/port, bourbon, new casks, all different, all can be prepared differently too. We can refurbish, change the size (anything from 10l upwards using any type of cask), char, re-char, even use different woods. French oak is subtly different from American oak, i.e. the wood grain opens up a little more easily, meaning the whisky can get into the wood and flavour profiles quickly. So… where does that leave us???

Well for one… we can use the oaks we have harvested to create our own barrel and vine barrels. We will aim for a bourbon flavour profile, so that means charring to get the vanilla, liquorice, and caramels. We will also aim for a 50 l cask, for our cask ownership programme, a 10 l cask for special occasions, and then a 110 l cask for those super long term investments.

At the barrel and vine, for both our wine and spirits, we want to focus on small quantity, provenance and honest local products. Unlike the super successful and amazing distilleries like Armorik and La Mine D’Or, we want our products to change and reflect the seasons. So if we have a great year, or the weather does something special, we want that year’s vintage to reflect that. Each year our spirits and wine will reflect what the earth gives us, and we want to find a small, and engaged customer base, that enjoys being part of that process. Benjamin and his barrels will contribute equally to this aspiration. His barrels will add a unique perspective to our vintages. If you get chance to visit his cooperage, we hope you can celebrate and share his dedication to preserving a unique craft!