Crafts of the Cooperage #2 - Raising the Staves

To carry out the “mise en rose” (raising), the cooper assembles the staves vertically, side by side, inside an assembly hoop. This stage comes just before bending, during which the cask takes on its final shape.

The “mise en rose” is the cooper’s domain a skill that demands dexterity, speed and precision. Each cask is made up of around 25 to 30 staves, depending on their width, carefully selected by the cooper to form the body of the barrel.

The Layout

The chosen staves are first laid out on the assembly table. The length of this layout, measured at its widest point, must correspond to the circumference of the future cask (2.35 m for a 228-liters Burgundy oak barrel). For this flat arrangement, the cooper positions the widest stave the one that will later hold the bung hole in the centre, then alternates the remaining staves according to their width.

The Cooper’s Skill

Before carrying out the “mise en rose” itself, the cooper gathers the staves together, following the order of the layout, and sets them upright. The staves are then positioned with the help of a wedge or “assembly key” inside the raising hoop. Once all the staves are in place, additional temporary hoops are driven down with a hammer and a drift. The staves are then carefully aligned to the same height using a hammer. At this stage, the structure remains unstable. It is the bending process that will give the barrel its definitive shape and the hoops that will secure the whole.

Raising the staves is a manual operation that relies on the cooper’s know-how a meticulous step preceding the bending of the cask. In some cooperages today, raising is mechanically assisted, easing the cooper’s task when shaping the body of the barrel.

Photographs © Christophe Deschanel