SOUND AS A BARREL

A fifth generation of coopers insists on bringing fire, oak wood and technology to wines, whiskies and vermouths. Their barrels are the oldest part of a glass of wine

“A cooper is a cross between a carpenter and a winemaker,” says Teresa Pérez, as she stands next to containers made of oak staves that are drying in the sun outside of the barrel-making company Gangutia. It’s a spring morning in Cenicero (La Rioja), and the manager and her husband Fernando Gangutia – the fifth generation of a company celebrating its “150+1” anniversary – talk about the business over the racket of hammers and sanding machines.

Barrels were not always destined to be paired with wine. They were a means of transport, a container for chickpeas or oil or flour, and no one suspected that they would add any particular value to grapes. “The Celts already used them as a way to transport items and as a unit of measurement. They realised that oak wood was perfect for this, because it bent without breaking and was resistant to rot,” says Teresa. “I didn’t discover the oenological value of barrels until the 1980s,” adds Fernando. “At a time when it seemed as if this craft might die out.” This revelation led him to study business administration in Bilbao. “I had lived with barrelmaking since I was a child, and I would come to help out at weekends. I didn’t think I’d do it as a profession, but then I saw that I could apply what I had learned and modernise a company that was very important to me.”

Gangutia began with his great-grandfather Santiago, who moved from Bérriz (Vizcaya) to La Rioja to offer his services. “He probably learned his trade in a port. So, he had the tools and he’d go from winery to winery. His son Tanis set up shop in the centre of Cenicero. When I started working, it was still a two

cooper workshop. Not only did they not do any marketing, they didn’t even have driving licences.” Fernando turned Gangutia into a modern company, but preserved the principles of craftsmanship, consisting of a long list of painstaking processes: seasoning, cutting, shaping, bending (softening them with water or fire to shape them), toasting, chiming (bevelling), placing the heads, hooping (to hold the shape), checking that it is all leak-proof, then sanding and marking with logos. All these phases are done in a workshop operating with a choreographed performance of fire and steam. Gangutia’s 30 workers feed the flames, cut the staves, handle the laser or move the barrels from one place to another with their fingertips.

Of all these processes, there are three that give personality to the wine and prove the cooper’s expertise: the selection of wood, its drying and its toasting. The first is done in forests in the US Midwest and in different regions of France, although they also work with

European oak and Asturian acacia. As with vineyards, soil is important. What’s more, “Depending on how long an oak tree has grown, the piece will have a grain that is coarser or finer and will be more or less flavourful,” says Teresa. Seasoning is done naturally. “Wood needs air and rain to clean and refine itself. You have to let fungus do its job. We design how each oak will be cured based on its DNA,” she adds. Toasting is the process most appreciated by oenologists. This is where nuances originate, from the intensities of different whiskies to the subtleties of vanilla, roasted flavours and the fruity or spicy notes of red wines.

“Everyone wants a medium toasting, but that means something different to each one. So we have a ‘medium toasting’ that’s unique to each bodega,” explains Teresa.

Time is the dimension that best defines the life of a barrel. It’s the oldest part of a glass of wine; a red wine that is aged has a history that began 100 years earlier in a forest in Missouri, Ohio, Jupilles, Tronçais or Vosges. Álvaro Martínez del Castillo – oenologist at the Rioja winery Martínez Lacuesta and a descendant of its founders – says that the barrel imbues wine with longevity and gives it an extra life. “What the barrel does is change the organoleptic characteristics of the wine; it alters them and gives the wine more life. Without that contribution from the oak, it would quickly lose these qualities and the intensity of its aromas and flavours.” To highlight the importance of the barrels, Martínez Lacuesta greets visitors with an exhibition of ancient barrel-making tools. The winery, which is 125 (+1, also) years old, uses them to illustrate its artisanal tradition. After a period in which wood has been the protagonist in both the nose and on the palate, the present and the future are trending towards “softer and lighter wines, with less alcohol”. Barrels will continue to be fundamental, but this time with a shorter toasting that will put their subtlety to the test. ¶