You know the deal; the more some folks learn about a topic, the more shortcuts/slang/acronyms/initials/technical jargon can be tossed around.  I’m here to help you understand those sometimes mysterious words and phrases, thus – Wine Words Demystified!

This week’s word is Cooperage…

According to Karen MacNeil‘s The Wine Bible:

“Containers a winery uses for storing wine, usually barrels or wooden cask, though the term cooperage can also apply to concrete or stainless steel vessels”

This is actually one of the words, I had NO idea of the what the meaning was of when I first got into wine.   The term derives from the “cooper”, an individual who makes or repairs wooden containers.  From a practical point of view it just refers to the barrels in which wine is aged.

Cooperage is one of the major factors in determining a wine’s aromatics, flavors, and tannins. Not only does the type of wood used influence the aromatics, flavors, and tannins of a wine, but also the size of the barrel in which a wine is aged, and of course how long the wine is aged in barrel.

Some wineries are pretty transparent about their cooperage (a.k.a. barrel program or barrel aging), and the corresponding aging of their wine, other are not.  I prefer transparency.  Here’s an example from Ridge Vineyard which is pretty transparent about their cooperage It’s from the 2007 Ridge Syrah/Grenache…

Barrels: Air-dried american oak (21% new, 42% two years old, and 37% three years old)

Not all wines are aged in wooden barrels (which may be new or previously used).  Some are aged in stainless steel or concrete vessels.

Such information, if a winery makes it available, may be in found in the technical data that accompanies the description of how a wine is made, or in the “trade/media” page of a wineries website.

Related articles

• Wine Words Demystified: Estate Bottled (enofylzwineblog.com)
• The Art of Cooperage (thecultureofwine.blogspot.com)