When did the first barrel start?

The invention of the barrel dates back to the dawn of time: it has never been dated with certainty. We know, however, that the oak barrel has allowed the wine to exist as we know it today, from the 1st century.

Because without a barrel, there is no wine ...

At least no natural wine: before the wooden barrel, the fermented grape juice was stored in hermetic amphora where honey and spices were added.This prevented the contents from turning to vinegar immediately. It was the "Roman wine", today disappeared after being transformed by the Celtic know-how ...

Raising wine in amphora would be very different

To locate, here is what the historian Marcel Lachiver says in his work Wines, Vines and Winegrowers:

"If (the Roman wines) returned today to our tables, they would attack our palate, and we would be reluctant to extend them with water to be able to swallow them; and the falern, wine of great reputation, would probably be a mixture unworthy of our tables "

The invention of the oak barrel

Gaul gathered Celtic peoples whose civilization was turned towards wood and the forest in general. The Roman Empire, on the other hand, was heir to Mediterranean cultures where the oak is absent because of the hot and dry climate.

The Celts thus had a privileged access to an exceptional raw material and they very early made oak barrels to transport their favorite foods and beverages: beer and beer, among others. This explains why the etymology of the word "barrel" refers to a Celtic and non-Latin root.

The traces of the first barrels date from the first century

Unlike amphora ceramics, barrel wood could only be preserved under very particular conditions. In the wet earth, we found barrel debris dating back to the first century BC But overall, there are only a few traces of these first barrels.Fortunately, we can turn to art to have proof that coopers have existed for a long time.

The barrel serving a natural and local wine

The barrel was not only a gain for transportation: solid, easy to roll, stack, etc. It also allowed to vinify with simplicity, without having to worry about importing spices: only the grape was necessary. Unlike the amphora, the barrel could be dismantled and renovated in case of breakage or leakage. Its easy cleaning already guaranteed better hygiene and its format improved fermentations.

Once out of use, the barrels were recycled: they were used for example to strengthen the walls of the wells. We have found 2000 years old wooden hoops which prove that the oak was already worked by these antique coopers. Until the third century, softwoods were nevertheless used. But this type of petrol eventually disappeared, along with the amphorae.

In the end, the barrel has spread all over the world and has maintained its unmissable status over the centuries. Every time a region started producing quality wines, new and clean oak barrels were lurking in the shadows of the cellars.