Staves

In the production of stave wood, every step is essential to ensuring high-quality wood for cooperage. After the edging process, comes the sorting phase. This crucial step involves selecting the stave wood pieces that meet the strict requirements for producing staves, ensuring the quality and, most importantly, the watertightness of the barrels.   S [...]

Cubing logs* is the first step in the stave mill process. This is where future barrels are shaped.   Logs are trucked directly from the forest to the Group’s staveyards. In Murlin, in Varzy (Nièvre Merrain), in Saint-Martin-du-Puy (Ateliers du chêne) or at Tonnelleries Merranderies Réunies in Charente… One by one, the logging truck places […]

Through this new series on the professions of cooperage, we will guide you through each step and skill of the trade, covering the roles of scaler, crosscutter, splitter, sawyer, edger, sorter, quality controller, and stacker of staves.   After the Charlois buyers select the oaks in the forest, the most important task in working oak […]

Loire Ornements and its teams made a brief stop in Nièvre. Located in Maine-et-Loire, specifically in Le Coudray-Macouard, the company was founded in 2017 by Charlotte Duplessis and Luc Debourg. It specializes in architectural roof ornaments and roofing, working across France, particularly on classified historical monuments.   They arrived in a gro [...]

The wood reader   He’s one of those people you just want to let speak, to listen. On a short distance of a well-deserved vacation, José Simoes, 66, has spent over thirty years at Maison Charlois. Meet him.   It is a few minutes past 4pm. José has just stacked and sorted his last pieces […]

For a day, they left their Côte-d’Or vineyard to visit Murlin. An opportunity to discover a site, a story and ancestral know-how. A guided visit on the other side of wine.   They braved the fog and crossed Morvan to reach Murlin mid-morning. They are winemakers, customers of Tonnellerie Marsannay, and their estates cover prestigious […]

Time is something you can’t control. You have to deal with it. For cooperage, it’s the same thing. There are crucial steps to follow. A virtuous cycle to select the best stave oaks to supply cooperages.   The oaks harvested from forests are at least 150 to 180 years old. The oaks purchased by wood […]

The Charlois family has always enjoyed a close relationship with the Bertranges forest and its century-old oak trees. It was therefore only natural for the Charlois family to have sourced, for several centuries, high-quality oak staves from this exceptional forest that is now managed by the ONF (National Forest Office). These photographs taken by J [...]

After being sorted at the log yard, merrain-quality oaks are cut into logs approximately 1.20 meters long as they enter the stave mill Each log is split into several quarters along the grain. This critical step ensures the watertightness of the future staves. The quarters are sawn lengthwise, always along the grain, to the desired […]

Following skidding and loading operations, oak logs are transported to Murlin (Maison Charlois) or Saint-Martin-du-Puy (Les Ateliers du Chêne) for sorting and marking. Upon arrival at the log yard, any logs that do not meet the quality standards for staves (merrain) or railway ties are downgraded to construction timber or “All-Length Wood” (Bois To [...]

Throughout the year, Charlois Group buyers travel across French forests in search of the finest oaks to be used in crafting barrels for aging wines and spirits. The Charlois Group is the leading purchaser of oak from the ONF (National Forestry Office), whose sustainable forest management practices prominentlyfeature the regular oak stand silvicultu [...]

Without human intervention, forests would not be able to produce wood in sufficient quantity or quality to meet society’s needs while continuing to thrive. This is why specific forestry practices and management plans must be implemented for each tree species, depending on their intended use.   French merrain oak represents exceptional wood quality, [...]