Gaël Chaunut, the new cooper for Bollinger champagnes

Gaël ChaunutWhat did you do to become a cooper?
I took a cooper's CAP in Beaune from 2000 to 2002, then continued at Compagnons du Devoir for an apprenticeship in carpentry. I did my sandwich course at Tonnellerie de Champagne-Ardennewhere I stayed for 17 years.

Is carpentry a classic career path if you want to become a cooper?
No, it's a little something extra that I wanted to acquire. When I first joined the cooperage in Champagne Ardenne, there weren't enough of them. of so I broadened my skills.

What does a cooper's job involve?
The job of "barrel carpenter", as it used to be called, involves making barrels for maturing wines. While the barrel-making process is based on a number of common stages, at Bollinger we make our own technical choices, which make all the difference when it comes to tasting. Here, we use very few new barrels, since we don't try to wood the wines. We favor the development of very fine aromas, which, thanks to micro-oxygenation, give the wine a great capacity for aging. Wood is permeable to air and impermeable to wine. A new barrel and a used barrel will not let through the same quantity and quality of oxygen. For the few new barrels we design, we use wood from the Cuis family forest.

It seems that you also make your own tools?
Yes, cooper's tools are very hard to find, so I sometimes make my own, which means I have tools that are adapted to my way of working.

What is your role today at Bollinger ?
First of all, I'm particularly happy to have joined this fine House, for which wood vinification has always been one of the fundamental pillars of taste. Vinification takes place in barrels that are 20 years old for 228-liter wines, 12 years old for 350-liter wines, and 50 years old for pipes. My role is to maintain, repair and replace replace damaged staves, and re-string if necessary.of the 4,000 barrels in service. All this takes place in the company's cooperage workshop. The barrels are then washed, cleaned of deposits, dried and sterilized, before being put back into service. At Bollingerthe wines vinified in wood are used to make all the vintages and to replenish the stock of magnums of reserve wines. They are also used to make non-vintage cuvées.