Okanagan Barrel Works Ltd. of Oliver, B.C., has tossed their barrel-maker’s gauntlet to a number of internationally renowned cooperages: Seguin Moreau (Napa), Demptos (Napa), Radoux (Santa Rosa) A&K Cooperage (Missouri), Canadian Oak Cooperage (Ontario) and Carriage House Cooperage (Ontario) to determine how each cooper’s barrels will impact on a given wine.
All have accepted the challenge and have supplied barrels made from the same oak species with the same toasting levels. Oliver’s Jackson-Triggs Winery of Oliver is supplying the grapes and contributing their winemakers’ skills to craft single lot Merlot in each of the barrels. In effect, while the wine going into the barrels will be identical, the finished wine in each barrel will be different.
At the completion of the process in Fall 2010 an international panel of wine experts will judge the relative oak impact of the individual barrels on their respective wines and report their findings at a soiree at the Okanagan Barrel Works cooperage. The finished wine will then be sold at auction for the benefit of charities selected by the cooperages.
The challenge concept, similar in structure to the 1976 “Judgement in Paris” (made famous by the movie “Bottleshock” when California wines won out when compared head-to-head with the best of France)) was conceived with Bruce Fuller, Proprietor Oliver’s Rustico Farm & Cellars winery, to showcase the tradition and history of the barrel making trade and to better inform wine makers and drinkers of the barrel-ageing process and its nuances .
Established in 1998 to provide a full range of professional cooperage services, Okanagan Barrel Works (www.winebarrels.com) began making barrels under their own brand in 2003, garnering favourable reviews from award-winning winemakers both domestically and internationally. The company is also the only North American cooperage actively making large format oak tanks up to 20,000 L and larger.
The last operating cooperage in British Columbia was the venerable Sweeney Cooperage of Vancouver which closed in the early 1980’s after almost 100 years of operation.
-30-
For further information please contact:
Okanagan Barrel Works 2001 Ltd.
P.O. Box 1290
8927 340th Avenue, Oliver, BC V0H 1T0
Phone: 250-498-3718 Fax: 250-498-0463
