Wine Barrel Art – Part 1: Origins
“Wine barrel art” can be defined as the broad range of aesthetic objects made from wine barrels through an artisan’s skill and creative imagination. These objects make natural elements of a “wine décor” for decorating and accessorizing wineries, tasting rooms, bars and restaurants, as well as home wine cellars and bars.
In this article we provide a brief review of wine barrel art – focusing on its origins in the old world folk-art of barrel carving. In Part 2 of this article we will provide an overview of the wide range of artisan products made from wine barrels today.
Wine barrels have been around a very long time. The first recorded accounts of wood casks used for storing and transporting wine were in Babylon about 4000 years ago. However, the wine barrel we know today was most likely developed by the Celts around 400 BC, who had migrated to what is now the Burgundy region of France. They used techniques employing heat, water and pressure adapted from ship-building to shape wood staves into water-tight containers. The Romans embraced the concept and made extensive use of these barrels to transport all kinds of bulk goods around their empire, spreading the art of barrel making widely across Europe.
In recent times the use of barrels to store and transport most bulk goods gradually gave way to other more efficient methods, but their use in storing and aging wine and spirits is going stronger today than ever. The reason is the unique ability of oak barrels to impart the tannins and flavors sought by makers of wine and spirits, while regulating the inward flow of oxygen and the outward flow of liquid.
The earliest examples of wine barrel art are lost in the sands of time (wood after-all eventually decomposes), but large barrels full of wine most certainly inspired many old world artisans to decorate them with carvings. Only some of the biggest, best and more recent of these survive to this day. Many of them are in Germany, where wine-making on a large scale intersected with the presence of highly skilled wood carvers. Some of the most well-known examples are in the Heidelberg Castle. This ornately carved and embellished wine tank dates back to 1591. Local vineyard owners paid their taxes by adding a portion of their output to it.
As a side note, this “small” wine tank was supplemented with an additional “large” wine tank in 1751. …apparently taxes went up.
In those times it was a sign of status for wineries to show off elaborate barrel carvings on their large wine tanks, as well as on their smaller barrels. They served as signage at wineries, as well as decorative displays inside, depicting a wide range of subject matter – from the owner’s favorite vintage or pastime, to landscapes and wildlife scenes, to bacchanalian celebrations.
The ornate barrel carvings in the legendary Achaia Clauss winery near Patras Greece are another example. This winery was founded (not coincidentally) by the Bavarian Gustav Clauss around 1860, who brought with him to Greece his love of winemaking and the barrel carving tradition. A typically ornate carving is shown here, with a distinctly Greek theme.
This old world tradition nearly faded away until being revived by a handful of new world artisans. The largest collection of modern day barrel carvings in the world is on display at the beautiful Sebastiani Winery in Sonoma California. It includes hundreds of hand-carved barrels of all sizes plus many carved doors, posts and beams inside the winery. It is all the work of one man, Earle Brown, who dedicated much of his life to creating it under the patronage of owner August Sebastiani. Here are some examples of his work.
In Part 2 of this article we will explore the wine barrel art being produced by current day artisans.
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