Éclat & The Barrel for every Varietal

Jean Christophe decided to build his own cooperage Tonnellerie Vinéa based on an entirely new technology: Ceramic Radiant Heat. Feeling that fire toasting was an imprecise science, he developed ceramic radiant heat to dial in a heat source that is reliably consistent and can be controlled. Using ceramic radiant plates that are lowered into the barrel, one can visually see the wood sugars being cooked deep into the stave thereby reducing oak ellagitannin without increasing phenolic impact . Jean Christophe identifies this process as similar to baking a cake in the oven. You wouldn’t choose to bake a cake on a grill as it wouldn’t uniformly cook the cake in a controlled fashion and the flames of the fire would char the cake. This is also what makes the Eclat barrels highly unique as their minimal exposure to fire makes the barrels have few smoky or tar like characteristics. Instead these barrels bring a textural length and structure on the palette, aromatic baking spices and definition to the fruit. With a difficult vintage like 2020, these barrels offer a way to use new French oak that is subtle and most importantly respectful of the vineyard site. Our company has seen these barrels on a wide spectrum of varietals from Chardonnay to Pinot Noir to Cabernet Sauvignon to Syrah and larger format 500L puncheons have been a hit with Rhone varietals.