Tonnellerie de MERCUREY

Nicolas Tarteret was raised in the wood business. His father Phillipe owns and operates a hardwood mill, and his brother Bertrand owns an oak flooring business. In 1990, Nicolas and his wife Carole built NT Bois, a stave mill at Aix-en-Othe (Champagne region), France. Two years later they created Tonnellerie de MERCUREY in Burgundy.

NT Bois is the fifth largest stave mill in France and employs 48 people.  The company annually purchases 35,000 cubic meters of standing trees.  Nicolas oversees the sourcing of oak from both the center and northeastern regions of France.

Fifty percent of NT Bois production goes to Tonnellerie de MERCUREY; the remaining half is sold to other cooperages. Tonnellerie de MERCUREY obtains 100% of its oak from NT Bois. This vertical integration is unique among Burgundy coopers.

The relationship between NT Bois and Tonnellerie de MERCUREY guarantees control of all aspects of the oak sourcing, aging and stave selection necessary to produce
the highest quality French oak Burgundy barrels.

At the inception of Tonnellerie de MERCUREY, Nicolas Tarteret
collaborated with local winemaker Bruno Lorenzon.
Bruno’s family owns vineyards in the village of Mercurey
and makes wine at the family domaine. Bruno has
acted as an in-house toasting consultant,
and Domaine Lorenzon has served as the testing
ground for de MERCUREY toasting regimes
since the cooperage’s creation.

Tonnellerie de MERCUREY produces 12,500 barrels
annually for the world. Having outgrown their production facility, Nicolas and his team broke ground on a new state-of-the-art cooperage at the village of Mercurey in mid-2008. De MERCUREY is dedicated to quality over quantity, and the new cooperage is designed to produce a maximum of 15,000 barrels annually.