OUR KNOW-HOW

The Romanian oaks that are used today in the cooperage are cultivated using ‘French style’ silvicultural methods that were progressively adopted in Romania from the second half of the 19th century onwards. Correspondingly, all the forestry activities of Transilvania Bois respect the fundamental principles of reasoned silviculture.Thanks to its implantation and its specialist equipment, Transilvania Bois is able to secure its supplies in the regions of Romania where the oak is best adapted to the demands of fine cooperage. Every year Transilvania Bois devotes itself to acquiring the finest oaks for Tonnellerie Vlad.Its facilities include a vast area for the reception and sorting of the logs, offering an assurance of perfect traceability in the raw material supply chain.

The staves are then formed according to the particular rules and constraints of the stave- milling tradition. The different stages of splitting, sawing along the grain, selection, calibration and inspection are all carefully respected, as these are vital to ensuring the water-tightness and the solidity of the future barrels. Once made, the staves are stacked in piles and humidified for two months, then seasoned in the open-air wood yards.

Over 20 years’ experience in forestry and stave-milling, associated with complete control of the oak supply, enables Tonnellerie Vlad to produce its barrels in optimum conditions whilst respecting the sustainable development and biodiversity of the forests.

Tonnellerie Vlad offers barrels in all the principal capacities, in different intensities of toast, from 1 to 4 hours, to suit every requirement.It has developed a distinctive artisanal toasting method whose effectiveness has been proven over many years.

This artisanal toast process differs from traditional methods in its use of incandescent oak embers that are renewed several times to enable the toasting to penetrate the stave by several millimetres (4 to 10mm depending on the intensity). This type of slow, low temperature toasting develops vanillin aromas and particularly refined and subtle oaky notes.The re-use of the barrel for a second wine gives 60 to 70% of the render of a new barrel.

3 intensities of toast
– Light Ember Toast : up to a maximum of 2 hours depending on the intensity of the embers
– Medium Ember Toast : up to a maximum of 3 hours
– Heavy Ember Toast : up to a maximum of 4 hours
Toasted head on demand