🍷 Foudre
Also known as: foudre, large oak cask, large cask, giant cask, large format cask, foudres
A very large oak cask for wine, made to order and holding far more than the usual 225 to 300 litres.
A foudre (large oak cask, giant cask) is a wooden vessel for wine, much bigger than an ordinary barrel. A standard barrel holds 225 litres in Bordeaux or 300 in Burgundy. A foudre is built to order, and there is no single size.
It comes down to proportion. In a big vessel each litre of wine meets less wood, so the oak gives less tannin and flavour and the ageing stays gentle. Compare that with a barrique, where the wine is close to the staves all the time.
Some of the figures are startling. The French workshop Charlois says it made a 433,000-litre cask in 1899, then the largest in the world, and a vat of over a million litres in 1949 for Byrrh in the eastern Pyrenees. Its story starts in 1850, when Charles Frunhinsholz opened the first cooperage in Alsace. Today the workshop stands in Petite Champagne, in the Cognac area.
Cognac coopers make foudres too. The craftsmen who build ordinary casks also turn out very large ones, and made-to-measure vats of 1,000 to 50,000 litres, mostly for blending spirits. So grape brandies and wine share the same cooperage skills.
So a foudre differs from an oak barrel in scale, not in wood: more volume, less oak per litre and a quieter ageing.
Facts
| Cask type | Large cask or vat made to order, from 1,000 to 50,000 L and more 2 |
|---|---|
| Raw material | Oak 1 |
| Main use | Gentle ageing: less wood per litre of wine, less tannin and aroma 3 |
| Year founded | First Charlois cooperage: 1850, Alsace 1 |
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Foudre → kind of → 🍷 Oak barrel ← packed in ← 🍷 Wine
How it connects to Spirits
🍷 Foudre ← packed in ← 🍇 Grape brandies → kind of → 🥃 Spirits
Links
- Next step
- 🏷️ Aging of wine
- What is packed
- 🍇 Grape brandies, ⚗️ How spirits are made, 🥃 Marc des Côtes-du-Rhône
- Part of
- 🍷 Oak barrel, ⚗️ How spirits are made
Frequently asked questions
How big is a foudre compared with a barrique?
A Bordeaux barrel holds 225 litres. A foudre is built to order, with vats running from 1,000 to 50,000 litres and a record cask of 433,000.
Why does a large cask give less oak flavour?
Each litre of wine touches less wood surface, so less tannin and fewer aroma compounds pass from the oak into the wine.
Who builds foudres?
Specialist coopers, among them French workshops in Alsace and the Cognac area, where the same craftsmen also make ordinary barrels.
Is it true that foudres are only made in Alsace?
No. The first Charlois cooperage opened in Alsace in 1850, but coopers in the Cognac area build large casks and vats as well.
Is a foudre only used for wine?
No. Cognac coopers also build vats of 1,000 to 50,000 litres, mostly for blending spirits.
What to read next
- ⚗️ How spirits are made — Fermentation, distillation (below 96% ABV), oak ageing, blending and dilution with water: five steps from grain or fruit to bottle.
- 🥃 Marc des Côtes-du-Rhône — Protected EU name for a spirit made from the grape marc of the Côtes du Rhône zone: white rests at least 3 months in vats, aged spends at least 3 years in wood. Sold from 40% ABV.
- 🏷️ Aging of wine — The period in which wine matures in barrels, vats or bottles.
Similar
🍷 Puncheon · 🍷 Pièce (Burgundy barrel) · 🍷 Bung · 🍷 Stave · 🍷 Barrel hoop · 🍷 Barrel toasting
Sources
- Charlois. L'Atelier du Foudrier: the complete mastery of the art of producing huge casks and vats
- Cognac Culture (Bureau national interprofessionnel du Cognac). Cognac trades: the coopers
- Carpena M. et al. Wine Aging Technology: Fundamental Role of Wood Barrels. Foods 9(9):1160, 2020