Garbellotto French Oak Puncheon 500L Medium Toast

In order to provide more complete service, Garbellotto has realized a renewing of the barrel line, not only aesthetical: the hoops have been rationalized with circles narrower and thicker in order to have the same static seal, but increasing the surface area of free wood, and so the micro-oxygenation; the available range of wood and thickness has been expanded, having wood throughout all France, not only in the Central Massif, but also near Paris in Fontainebleau.

Bending of staves is always carried out using a direct flame and the exclusive DTS® method which allows the heat level of the flame to be digitally controlled, maintaining all wood at the same temperature without any changes to the aromas. 

Thanks to the Digital Toasting System®, bending is followed by toasting, a process in which the temperature is also controlled precisely. Laser probes detect the interior temperature throughout the wood’s surface.

The growth of wood, like grapes and all natural products, depends on micro climatic variables such as the degree of humidity in the area, the composition of the earth as well as the exposure of the hill or plain. The selection criteria generally used are based only on the region and the experience of the producer. It cannot be said that wood originating from a specific region has a higher level of polyphenols than others grown in other regions, since the origins don’t make the difference, whereas the single stave does. If we think about the difference between the grapes produced in one vineyard and others produced at a distance of 5 km we can well understand just how much difference exists inside a forest where the distances reach 100km and over. The ordinary methods of analysis are ineffective as only samples of a few cm of wood are assessed in laboratories and are thus representative only of themselves.

With NIR (Near Infra-Red) technology every stave is controlled under infra-red light and its aromatic and structural features are analyzed online in order to have all the information as if it were a radiography.

The toasting is the process that enhances the flavors of the wood catalyzing those already present in the same and positively evolving them. Until now this process was realized on a brazier fed with pieces of oak where it was placed the barrel or cask. It is clear that the wood evolves these aromas according to toasting temperatures, which must be on the range of 170/180/200 degrees centigrade depending on whether you seek, more or less aromas of vanilla, licorice, chocolate, or tobacco smoke.

If the temperature and internal exposure of the staves is not homogeneous and controlled, the result are casks or barrels with aromas undefined. The staves taking less heat will develop bitter and negative aromas, the staves that take too much exposure can produce negative aromas of graphite. For this reason we created and patented the DTS® digital toasting, where a tablet, thanks to sensors, can handle the fire levels so that it is constant over the entire surface of the wood.