The process of making a barrel does not begin at our plant in Navarrete. It starts in the very forest where the wood that we will later use to make our barrels grows. Only by controlling the process from the beginning can we guarantee the quality of each barrel we supply to each winery.
The raw material is fundamental and, for this reason, traceability is a resource that provides excellence, safety and efficiency throughout the process.
Tonelería Murúa has wood suppliers in both Europe and America. Thus, traceability and control is a constant and as Elena Ceca, CEO of the company and fourth generation, points out: ‘Within our company DNA, we consider it essential to ensure traceability and ensure that forest management is sustainable’.
All logs are identified, marked and catalogued. In this way, it is possible to establish the origin of the stave, the log, the parcel, the lot and the forest throughout the entire barrel-making process.
Process
The felling of the trees is one of the first parts of the process and has its peculiarities. In addition, it is not possible to extract logs at certain times of the year due to excessive snowfall. The cutting of the trunk is significantly different between American and French oak.
The trunk of French oak requires special treatment. Unlike American oak, French oak has well connected vessels, from the base of the trunk to the top of the tree. For this reason, all French oak planks are obtained using the splitting technique to guarantee the wood’s watertightness.
The traceability of the wood is maintained at the sawmill and then at the cooperage. We can also certify it with the various bodies responsible for supervising this management.
Guaranteed quality
PEFC certification aims to inform the end consumer of the origin of the wood they buy. In this way, it promotes the use of wood and forest products that have been manufactured with respect for the environment.
The FSC, on the other hand, is an independent, non-governmental, international, non-profit organisation created in 1993, with the aim of promoting environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable forest management in the world’s forests.
Optimisation
Within each lot, a part of the timber harvest is used to obtain stavewood, but there is another variable percentage, only estimated a priori by the experience of the sawmill professionals, which is not suitable for stavewood production and has a lower commercial value.
Depending on this estimate, and on the quality of the stave wood, it is the sawmill professional himself who, guided by his experience, bids for the different batches of wood.
The use of codes for the identification of the barrels and the different batches of wood allows the traceability generated during the stavewood manufacturing process, which originated with the marking of the logs in the forests, to continue.
