🍷 Puncheon

A puncheon is a large oak cask of about 500 litres. That is more than twice a Bordeaux barrique of 225 litres or a Burgundy pièce of 228. One American cooper writes that it lets in less oxygen than smaller barrels.

Take one US cooperage, Canton Cooperage, as an example. Its puncheon holds 500 litres, or 132 gallons. It is 105 cm long and 96 cm across the belly. It weighs 80 kg and has staves 27 mm thick. The oak is American white oak, air-seasoned for at least 36 months and toasted over an open fire.

The cooper recommends it for fermenting or ageing white and red wines from the Rhône Valley, Italy and Spain, and for special cuvées of Bordeaux varieties.

Oxygen gets into wine through the bunghole, the joints between staves and the wood itself. According to the cooper, the exchange in a puncheon is lower than in smaller barrels, which helps keep the wine taut and fresh.

Southern Spain has a relative of the same size, the export butt (bota de exportación). It also holds 500 litres, measures 130 cm long by 92 cm wide, and was once used to ship wine. The main sherry ageing cask, the bota jerezana, is bigger at 600 litres. For casks in spirits see how strong drinks are made, and for the wood itself see oak barrel, barrique and pièce.