François Frères Barrels

Product Description

François Frères Barrels

• Founded in 1910, François Frères is the one of the most highly regarded cooperages of Burgundy located just outside of Beaune in the village of Saint-Romain, France.
• With 3 stave mills in the holdings of the company, François Frères sources and mills all its own raw oak from certified sustainable government managed forests in France and forests in Eastern Europe.
• François Frères have selected their raw oak with the same standard of quality over 20 years.
• The staves are seasoned at the cooperage in the heart of Burgundy for 2-4 years before they are milled and shaped to build the barrels using very traditional methods with natural oak fires to bend and toast the barrels by hand.
• All wood grain selections are also available in a range of toasting levels from light to medium-plus and are generally recommended for the famous varietals of Burgundy (pinot noir, chardonnay) as well as non-burgundian varietals (syrah, cabernet, merlot, sauvignon)

Commitment to Quality

• Tight selection of staves before seasoning
• TBA and TCA measured in workshops, incoming material and finished products
• Computerized traceability from wood to barrel

The quality of François Frères barrels is the result of constant selection and control work.

The logs are carefully selected from the National Forestry Office from the best forests to produce the best wood. The oak staves are shaped in our own stave yards in order to extract the most noble parts. Our site benefiting from a unique microclimate, the crucial period of natural drying in the open air for a minimum period of 2 years brings the wood to its most favorable state. The episodes of rain, wind and sun alternate regularly and generate an extraction of water-soluble substances (soluble ellagitannins). The leaching and chemical oxidation of the phenolic compounds allow a 100% natural maturation to keep only the best compounds of the wood, thus actively contributing to the final result.