The expertise
Five generations of cooperage, and what we went looking for elsewhere.
The original trade
Five generations of cooperage. Selecting and reading the wood, judging the grain, running a toast: none of that is learned from a catalogue.
Borrowed technologies
Our toasting and extraction processes also come from other industries, pastry making among them. That is where the right answers on heat and repeatability were to be found.
Thirteen years of contract manufacturing
Since 2013 we have been creating, developing and producing for cooperages of every size that sell under their own name, and for oenological laboratories as well.
Two ways of working with us
Cooperages
You have an identity, a wood and toast signature, a style your customers recognise and value.
We carry it outside the barrel.
- Sensory and analytical study of your range
- Formulation of oak products and tannins to your profile
- Prototypes, blind comparison, recipe locked down
- Series production under your brand
Oenological laboratories
You need a consistent, high grade product, not a factory. We produce under private label, from raw material to packing.
- Contract extraction, liquid or powder form
- Wood of traced origin, species and toast of your choosing
- Packing and labelling under your brand
- Technical and regulatory file supplied
The process
From your profile to your production
Four stages. You keep control of the profile, we carry the research and the industrialisation.
Reading your range
Tasting and analysis of your current references. We identify what makes your signature.
Specification
Species, origin, geometry, toast, target dose. The profile becomes a binding document.
Prototypes
Small scale trial runs, comparative tasting with your teams, arbitration.
Production
Series manufacturing, batch by batch controls, delivery under your brand and your packing.
The raw material
Yours or ours.
The choice depends on what you want to control and on what you already hold in stock.
Option 1
You supply the wood
Your stave wood, your staves, your offcuts. We receive them, we process them and we hand you back the finished product. Your wood stays yours, identified and kept apart from the rest of the workshop.
Option 2
We supply the wood
French or American oak from our own sourcing, seasoned 36 months in the open air, with no forced drying. Origin traced back to the forest, analyses to match.
The workshop
Machines we designed ourselves.
None of our key machines is bought off the shelf. That is what allows us to control and reproduce a profile instead of stumbling on it by luck.
Toasting on our own kilns. Every cycle is recorded, every deviation is explained.
Low temperature extraction unit, to preserve the oak compounds.
Selection and shaping of the wood. Grain, ring width and freedom from defect are judged piece by piece.
Quality control
What is checked, and what you are given.
On arrival of the wood
Origin, species, moisture, appearance. Screening for haloanisoles, TCA included, by an independent accredited laboratory.
During manufacturing
Every toasting cycle and every extraction is recorded. A batch outside the range does not leave.
Before shipping
Control against the specification, batch analyses, control of packing and labelling.
What you receive
Batch certificate of analysis, certificate of origin, technical data sheet and safety data sheet, on your letterhead. The file follows the goods all the way to your customer.
And all of your data can be consulted from your customer portal.
Our values
A renewable resource, used in full.
Oak grows slowly. It has to be put to its best use.
Our environmental commitment is put into practice at every stage.
Nothing is wasted
What is not stave wood becomes chips, what is not chips becomes powder, what is left becomes extract. The whole resource is put to use.
Carbon free energy
Our workshops run on carbon free energy. Seasoning takes place on the yard, in the open air, so it consumes nothing.
Minimal packaging
The strict minimum, recyclable. We can also deliver in bulk in your own reusable containers.
Private label
What we deliver
Oak for winemaking
Chips, powders, staves, cubes, segments, inserts. Geometries and toasts defined with you, packed in your own bags and under your own codes.
Powder tannins
Freeze dried extract, compliant with the International Oenological Codex, therefore usable in wine. From the sachet to the pail.
Liquid tannins
Concentrated extract for uses outside wine: spirits, brewing, flavours, soft drinks.
The terms
Confidentiality
Agreement signed first
A confidentiality agreement precedes any technical exchange. Your profile, your volumes and your name do not leave our walls.
Your brand, not ours
No mention of AMÉDÉE on what we make for you, unless you ask otherwise.
Your recipes belong to you
A formulation developed for you does not join our catalogue and is offered to no one else.