#allezlessomms

[ajojedapons]

J’adore beaucoup @mysaintemilion #sommlife #slib2018 #keeponpouring #sommelier #instagay #bordeaux #allezlessomms #drinkchampagneeveryday (at Saint-Émilion)

[ajojedapons]

#SaintEmilion @mysaintemilion #Bordeaux #RightBank #Medieval #Architecture #Ville @saintemiliontourisme #sommlife #keeponpouring #Allezlessomms (at Saint-Émilion)

[ajojedapons]

One of my favorite #winebars in #Bordeaux @le.flacon #exceptional #winelist #amazing service, great food #sommlife #mykindofbar #keeponpouring @vinsdebordeaux #allezlessomms (at Le Flacon)

[ajojedapons]

Students learn to make barrels by hand using no machinery but the ancient methods. #fascinating #sommlife #keeponpouring #SLIB2018 #allezlessomms (at Beychac-Et-Caillau, Aquitaine, France)

[ajojedapons]

The process continues, the bunghole is cut and the barrels are pumped with pressurized air to check for faults in the staves, if there are air leaks the faulty staves are replaced, the barrels then get sanded down and polished. #sommlife #keeponpouring #SLIB2018 #AllezLesSomms @wsetglobal (at Beychac-Et-Caillau, Aquitaine, France)

[ajojedapons]

Day two/ part 5: the barrels get heated and are sprayed with water to make the staves malleable to make it easier to shape, they are bent to their shape, they get toasted and sanded and the groove for the end parts is cut, then with a dough of buckwheat flour the ends are fitted. #sommlife #keeponpouring #SLIB2018 #allezlessomms @wsetglobal (at Beychac-Et-Caillau, Aquitaine, France)

[ajojedapons]

Day 2/part 3: there is an incredible amount of hard manual labor in the production of #barrels, in a supremely noisy environment. After the staves have been sorted, trimmed and sanded, they get assembled in the first stage of becoming #barrels #sommlife #keeponpouring #SLIB2018 #AllezLesSomms (at Beychac-Et-Caillau, Aquitaine, France)

[ajojedapons]

Day 2/part 1: we visited the #Tonnelerie #Boutes to learn how #barrels are made, from the forest they are grown, to to final product. From the straightest, very tall oak trees from a national forest, planted during the reign of Louis XIV. It takes 180 years for a tree to mature. To begin, someone is employed to analyze the forest and decide which tree is ready. Branches are cut off first and are sold to make furniture. The trees are cut from December to March and their place outside the forest to start the curing process. Treats her only cut when their sap is down. The logs are split into two, then in quarters. French oak can be split, American oak cannot because it has a different type of fiber. The forests are will managed. They keep the best trees and reproduce them to make some more good trees. The quarters are sliced little by little into planks, there is a lot of waste in the process. The planks go to storage to dry, depending on the wood, from 2-3 years. Once the wood is dry it gets sorted again to check for faults. The word is cleaned all the time to wash the tannins. It dries/washes naturally by the combination of the sun and the rain. Since it is very expensive to transport tree logs, they do this process closer to the source where they will be transformed into barrels. They have a unique way to stack the staves, in tall towers comprised of an inner ring and an outside ring. Some towers a stored covered under a roof and some are stored outside. The ones stored outside have less tannins, the ones covered higher tannins. #sommlife #keeponpouring #SLIB2018 #AllezLesSomms @wsetglobal (at Beychac-Et-Caillau, Aquitaine, France)