ORIOR – A Barrel Inspired by Nature

For several years, Charlois has commissioned artists to create designs for barrels crafted in the workshops of the La Grange Cooperage Manufacture. The aim is to highlight the craftsmanship of its coopers while staying true to its policy of supporting contemporary creativity.

After the tattooed barrels by Yannick Meziani, Jordane Saget’s swirling lines, and Louis Charlois’s vivid, pointillist universe, the design of the 2023 barrel was entrusted to mosaic artist Sœur Samuelle. Her artistic world is filled with marble, hard stone, glass, wood, gold, and gold leaf. 

When Sœur Samuelle first visited Murlin, she was captivated by both the environment and the challenge ahead: designing a barrel crafted by La Grange Cooperage Manufacture. This barrel serves as an emblem of the sacred union between wood and wine. Mosaic is traditionally a covering art. However, for this project, Sœur Samuelle avoided covering the outer shell of the barrel or concealing its oak wood: “Out of respect for the material and the work of the coopers.”Instead, she chose to decorate the interior. 

From the barrel’s base to the croze, the staves were adorned with pieces of slate and tesserae* made from oak products developed for winemaking by Oenosylva. The wooden tesserae come in different shades, depending on the intensity of the toast—light, medium, or heavy. Through this, the artist sought to evoke, in part, the interactions between wood and wine. 

The base of the barrel, embellished with slate and highlighted with gold, symbolizes the mineral elements and the soil from which oak trees grow and thrive. The circular arrangement of tesserae recalls the growth rings of a century-old tree. These circles lighten as they ascend, reaching the croze and representing light. Charlois’s cherished motto, “Everything begins with the forest,” was also an inspiration for Sœur Samuelle. She carved grooves by hand into the outer shell of the barrel, using chisels, and embedded green glass tesserae in four different shades. These elongated, tapered shapes evoke the forest, the oak, and the wood from which the barrel was made. 

“For the decoration of the ORIOR** barrel, I did everything by hand—from cutting the wooden tesserae to hollowing out the staves of the shell to embed the designs. The coopers at La Grange Cooperage Manufacture made this barrel by hand, so I felt I could only continue their work in the same way. I sharpened my chisels, took my mallet, and got to work.”

The chosen barrel is a Burgundian type with a 228-liter capacity, standing 95 centimeters tall, with a slightly larger diameter than a Bordeaux barrel. “One of the challenges of decorating the interior of the barrel was that I had to physically fit inside to affix the tesserae to the walls. We ran some tests, and the Burgundian barrel was perfectly suited for both my design and my size.”

A Hymn to Nature

“Whether it’s the wood that makes the barrels, coming from the forest, or the grapes that make the wine, coming from the vineyard, everything originates from nature. The wood and the wine are united in the barrel for the better,” reflects Sœur Samuelle as she describes her creative process for decorating the barrel crafted by La Grange Cooperage Manufacture. 

“I need to feel things to express them—to immerse myself in an atmosphere, a scent, a landscape. I’ve poured all of that into this barrel. I was particularly inspired by the shape of the circle, its symbolism, its virtuous qualities, and what it tells us about the growth of an oak tree. The circle, a symbol of harmony and perpetual motion, has no beginning or end. It also embodies the idea of cycles… Then there’s the wine, liquid, with its flat and horizontal surface. Drop a fragment into the wine’s surface, and the impact will create a ripple, waves, an ever-expanding sphere of influence, a chain reaction—one within the whole—resonating… all in circular form.”

Through this piece, the artist deepens her interest in materiality and the interplay between each element she uses. Her work establishes a dialogue among materials, creating a cohesive whole that invites viewers to reflect on their own lives, the riches they possess, and their sources of inspiration. It challenges us to reconsider our perceptions of the broader environment and our connection to it. 

*Small fragments of marble, stone, glass paste, or ceramic used as the base material for a mosaic wall or pavement. 

**Latin term meaning “to take one’s source, to be born (to begin to exist), to rise (to begin to appear or form).” 

Photography © Christophe Deschanel