How did you get into the world of wine?
Well, through the cooperage sector. I come from the village of Elciego in Rioja Alavesa. My family founded the first cooperage workshop in this village and later moved to Logroño.
Since I was little, I combined my financial and marketing studies with learning to make barrels in the family business. One of my memories of childhood is the purchase of my first moped thanks to the salary I earned from my work of sorting staves every Saturday morning.
During the following years, a large part of my oenology training was doing in France and Spain, collaborating in the tasks of harvesting and aging wines with customers of our cooperage; coordinated with work in sawmills in the USA and France where I was able to learn and study the most suitable types of oak for the manufacture of barrels and their evolution in wines, spirits, still wines.
Do you remember your first contact with wine?
Perfectly. When I was 12 years old, my grandfather Pedro in Elciego put me on the cart pulled by his donkey (Paquita) and took me to one of his vineyards very early in the morning and taught me how to use the corquete to cut the bunches of grapes. A few hours later, it was time for lunch and I tasted the red wine from the leather boot my grandfather was carrying. It was one of the most special moments in my relationship with wine.
The following year, with my father Moises, we had a small subway cellar in the cooperage, with French / American and chestnut oak barrels in different capacities and I learned to raise, filter, and clarify the wine with egg white and bottling it manually. This is how the wine was awakening feelings within me.
Is there anything, in particular, you would like to say about your company?
In the wine sector, what one feels for the company is affection, as well as great respect for our customers, partners, suppliers, and a team of artisan workers in our production centers.
It is a great pride and a great responsibility to carry on our shoulders the task of making decisions every day about the preparation of the types of barrels that will contain many of the best Spanish and international wines and spirits. Our values are always honesty, transparency, and an eye to the future, which has allowed us to maintain and grow the company since its beginnings.
How did you hear about H&A?
Our relationship with H&A dates back to 2007 when the H&A team in Madrid presented us with the barrel park management project and their offer of financing for the purchase of barrels by our clients.
Many of our clients immediately accepted and incorporated this innovative barrel purchase system in their investment plans and every year new wineries are added to the H&A portfolio.
What do you like about H&A?
For us to receive H&A barrels with all their traceability, analysis and history is a guarantee that we are working with very high-quality barrels.
Their commitment to the environment and continuous recycling makes the used barrels a safe value.
Relationship with H&A?
It’s an intelligent company. It is a pleasure to collaborate with a tireless, innovative partner that knows how to listen to customers and suppliers.
H & A is proud to collaborate with this estate located in the south of Burgundy, in the heart of the name Pessac-Léognan.
We are proud to be a partner with this classified Great Growth located south of Bordeaux, in the heart of the Pessac-Leognan appellation.
Owned by André Lurton's vineyard since 1965, a fully restored world heritage and a reconstituted winery.
The US laps up French and Italian wine, according to market data...
Data from Tridge, a food and agricultural products sourcing platform and market data provider, shows that the US imports more wine (still, sparkling and fortified, as well as grape must) by value than any other country. Data shows that the country imported wine worth $6.5B in both 2018 and 2019, although this fell to $5.9B in 2020.
The United Kingdom is the next-biggest importer, having brought in $4.4B worth of wine, a value that remained stable in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Germany is the third biggest importer of wine, valued at $2.9B in 2020, a slight decline from $3B the previous year.
China’s wine imports have fallen from a peak in 2017 of $3.3B to just $1.8B in 2020 – partly a result of strict lockdown measures as well as of the intensifying US-China trade war.
So who is benefitting from all of this wine trade? The data shows that France is the world’s largest exporter, having traded $9.1B of wine beyond its borders in 2020 (down from $11B in 2019), followed by Italy ($7.2B; no change from 2019) and Spain ($3.1B; up from $3B in 2019).
French wine exports
The France to US trade route is the world’s most valuable, even though the value dropped from $2.1B in 2019 to $1.8B in 2020, likely a result of the hefty wine tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in 2019.
The third most valuable trade route in the world is from France to the UK – a historic route which has kept the British in drink for hundreds of years. It is France’s second most valuable source of income from wine trade, valued at $1.3B in 2020, although a gradual decline from $1.8B in 2012 suggests English wine is slowly taking market share as the UK industry matures.
The France to Japan wine trade accounted for $854.3m in 2020, up from $648.3 the previous year.
Italy wine exports
Unlike the France to Italy trade route, the Italy to US trade route has held firm at $1.7B since 2018 as the country’s wines escaped the punitive tariffs imposed by the US on French, German Spanish and UK wine imports.
The Italy to Germany trade route is valued at a steady $1.2B, while the country’s exports to the UK have fallen slightly from a peak of $959.1m in 2018 to $817m in 2020.
UK wine exports
UK wine trade rose in value from $698.1m in 2012 to $838.3m in 2019, although the effects of the pandemic reduced the value of exports to $685.1m in 2020. The country’s key export markets are Hong Kong ($194.1m in 2020), Ireland ($78.2m), the Netherlands ($61.3m) and the US ($56.2m).
If some blended whiskies are high quality products, dedicated to tastings, the large majority of the production is made for global consumption.
A reliable source of supply
French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are countries using oak during the winemaking process.
Historically cask was a way to store wine for shipment, but it quickly turned into a tool increasing the final product quality.
Today they are renewed every year after an average use of 2 to 5 years.
It ensures a reliable source of supply for Whisky distilleries.
A cost effective solution
Large scale production leads to cost effective production and European wine barrels can be part of the process. Once out of the wineries, casks’ value drop.
Furthermore, geographical proximity of wine producing and whisky producing countries has a positive impact on the transport cost.
This proximity also leads to a carbon dioxide emissions reduction.
Wine Barrels have a story to tell
Oak origin, area of production, grapes variety, … These settings – reproductible year after year – are part of a story that can be told by the distilleries.
Wine barrels offer numerous possibilities in terms of packaging, marketing, and communication.
What about you now? What story are you willing to tell?
The lifecycle of the barrel from H&A on Vimeo.
The past few years, White Wine Barrels have become an important tool to finish premium spirits and beers :
- White Wine 15 years from Teeling
- Auchentoshan Whisky Sauvignon Blanc
- Glen Moray 10 year old Chardonnay Matured
- Cantillon Lambic Chardonnay
- Russian River Temptation
But what are exactly the History and input of these rare barrels?
Most of them are made of fine grain French Oak.
For years, they hold the wine made of the most qualitative grapes variety, such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
BURGUNDY’S CHARDONNAY
Chardonnay , this very name is a journey to some of the most exotic countries and places in the world : South Africa, Australia, California, …
But Chardonnay’s history started in France, in Burgundy. There he earned its first stripes in Chablis, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Corton-Charlemagne … ect.
Today, he achieved a global recognition as one of the most famous and qualitative grappe in the World.
A Burgundy’s Chardonnay cask will bring grapes, apples, butter and floral aromas.
SAUVIGNON BLANC
Extremely popular as one of the most aromatic white varieties, White Sauvignon history started in France.
Indeed, Loire Valley and Bordeaux are the places where it all started.
The winemakers can produce really different profiles of white wines through the way they run the wine making process.
This large range of capabilities made White Sauvignon an international variety.
The White Sauvignon barrels will mostly bring citrus, blossom, and exotic fruits aromas.
H&A’s presence on the french wine market has made the group a major provider of high quality White Win barrels.
Our team can bring all the support and information to help you identify the relevant batches, and give a proprietary access each and every year.
https://ha-barrelmanagement.com/en/blog/the-role-of-white-wine-in-the-finishing-of-spirits
When sitting outside with friends on a warm day, Rick Arline, a sommelier in Los Angeles, says he always reaches for a bottle of Chablis. For him, this is the ideal time to drink the wine.
“I love the raciness, the acidity, the lean texture, and the way it seems to crackle when it hits your palate,” Arline says. “There’s nothing like Chablis.”
Arline joins a long legacy of sommeliers who share an affinity for Chablis. From the northern reaches of France’s Burgundy region, Chablis, made from the Chardonnay grape, is beloved for its complexity, its ability to transmit a sense of place, and its ease in pairing with a variety of foods.
Chablis has undeniable versatility at the dinner table. Master Sommelier Craig Collins of Austin, Texas, says he sees it as one of a handful of wines that can be served as an aperitif, as well as straight through a meal. While oysters are the classic pairing (the brininess of the bivalves is wonderful with the crisp wine), Chablis also has the bandwidth to stand up to spicy ceviche and richer dishes like pasta with lemon butter and king crab.
“It’s the perfect wine to bring to a dinner because you know it will pair with at least one course,” echoes Cristie Norman, sommelier at Spago Beverly Hills. That said, she’s been known to drink it poolside, too.
Confessing that she once subscribed to the misconception that Chablis was a “simple white wine,” Norman says that after tasting her way through many bottles, she now considers it one of the most layered and dynamic. It was Chablis that really helped her understand how terroir (a term that encompasses the soil, climate, and topography from which a wine is made) is translated through the final product.
Even though the region of Chablis is technically part of Burgundy, its wines tend to be more mineral-driven and have higher acidity than those made from Chardonnay from farther south in the Côte de Beaune. This distinction comes down to the cooler climate and the dramatic difference in soils.
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words: Stephanie Cain
photography: Joel Gesvres
Back to the 18th Century, the travel from Porto to London turned Portuguese wines into vinegar. So a British wine merchant started to add alcohol to the wines to prevent this from happening. It is the birth of Port Wines as know them today.Their popularity grown so fast that the Portuguese government had to regulate the production to preserve and improve the quality. They created in 1756 the first protected designation of origin.
The love consumers from all the United Kingdom had for the Port Wines have been the starting point of these great wines development.
Ruby, Tawny, and White, are among the most famous Port Wines existing today.
Ruby:
Aged 3 to 5 years in foeders. Some of them are going into oak barrels to improve their quality before being bottled.
Ruby barrels would bring sweetness, and strong red fruits aromas.
Tawny:
Tawnies need to be matured in oak for at least 5 years. Some of them can be aged up to 40 years and more.
The barrels inputs are: oxydative notes, chocolate, and candied fruits aromas.
White:
White Port are not traditional old style port. They have been created in the early 20th Century to compete with Xeres wines (Oloroso and PX).
The barrels inputs are : Citrus, flowers and almonds aromas.