French Oak Stave Wood

French Oak Terroir

Received a shipment of wood from our French stave supplier last week. Our stave supplier keeps all of the forest separate for us. We make barrels from six different French forest Nevers, Bertranges, Vosges, Chatillon, Fontainebleau and Center of France. Each forest has it’s own “Terrior”; location, soils, aspects and micro-climate that produces slightly different flavor profiles for the barrels made form these forest.

Both Chatillon and Fontainebleau are new forest for us in 2009.

The Chatillon Forest is located in the Cote d’Or department near the town of Chatillon-sur-Seine between Troyes and Dijon. The oak trees in the Chatillon forest struggle due to the poor, rocky, limestone and chalk soils. Barrels from the Chatillon forest are traditionally used in burgundy. Typical characteristics are mineral, vanilla, spice and tobacco.

The Fontainebleau forest in located in the Seine et Marne department, southeast of Paris near the city of Fontainebleau. The oak trees grow tall and uniformly, in deep sandy, silt soils. Resulting in even, tight grain with little variation in color. Typical characteristics are coffee, licorice, spice and leather.