Visiting Maison Charlois: From Forest to Barrel Cellar

The Domaine Eric Louis team visited the Maison Charlois estate in Murlin on 5 December 2025. Charlois is one of our oak barrel suppliers, operating under the brands La Grange in Murlin and Berthomieu in La Charité. We were welcomed by Maël, who walked us through every stage of the manufacturing process.

Originally, Charlois has been a stave-maker from generation to generation since the 17th century. It was around the year 2000 that the company expanded into cooperage. They also produce flooring, roof tiles, and marquetry. The Maison Charlois project aims to master the transformation of oak, from forest to barrel cellar.

The Forest: Where Excellence Begins

An Exceptional Forest Heritage in Service of Cooperage

Our region benefits from remarkable forests, perfectly suited for producing oak barrels of exceptional quality. The Tronçais forest, on the borders of the Allier, and the Bertranges forest in Murlin are prime examples. It is within the latter that the Charlois stave mill, the artisan cooperage La Grange, and the Chênaie cosmetics laboratories are located.

The Bertranges forest is among the oldest in France, with nearly 900 years of history. The National Forestry Office (ONF) manages it with a long-term vision spanning several generations. The oak trees can live up to 180 years.

The forest operates through natural regeneration: acorns from felled trees give rise to a new generation. In the first ten years of a newly cleared plot, around one million young oaks per hectare can grow.

Forest managers intentionally preserve non-oak species such as birch trees to protect the oaks from disease. After about ten years, they are cut down once the oaks are firmly rooted, concentrating growth energy on the oaks. After 50 years, density reaches around 500,000 oaks per hectare, gradually declining to around 100,000 after 180 years.

Oaks Carefully Selected for Specific Uses

There are around 600 species of oak in the world. However, coopers only use three of them for barrel-making, including the sessile oak, widely recognised for its qualities.

Coopers purchase oaks while still standing. Experts assess their value based on quality, then professionals individually select them with great care. Felling takes place during the descending sap period, in winter, to ensure the best wood properties.

Each oak is divided into several sections according to its use. The first third goes to cooperage. Joiners use the second third to make furniture and flooring, while the last third becomes firewood. Even after winter felling, the logs are only moved out of the forest in dry weather to preserve the forest floor.

The Historic Heart of the Charlois Group: The Stave Mill

Teams deliver logs directly from the forest to the Charlois stave mill. On site, they are sorted by quality, then cut into sections of 1 to 1.20 metres, known as billets. These billets are then taken into the mill to be split into quarters.

Operators then divide each quarter into several slices, from the outside toward the heart of the wood. The thickness of these slices ranges from 17 to 31 mm. This stage produces the staves.

Each stave is visually inspected, and any defects or knots are marked with a red line. The staves are then passed through a machine that saws and sorts them, optimising their dimensions and removing defective sections. Finally, the staves are stacked in the outdoor yard, where they dry for two years before being sold to cooperages.

The Artisan Cooperage in Murlin: La Grange

La Grange cooperage is described as a manufacture because it is a place of excellence where every step of each barrel’s making is done by hand. La Grange has 4 coopers, each producing one barrel per person per day — around 1,000 barrels per year. All barrels are made to order and can be fully customised.

Unique Know-How

The coopers receive the staves and shape them into staves (douelles). They then assemble them around a first hoop in a step called mise en rose (raising). They alternately heat and wet the wood to gradually bend the barrel into shape using forming hoops.

The finishing toast is done by nose, with the same precision a baker uses to judge a bake. This step plays a decisive role in developing the aromas that will be expressed during wine ageing.

Once the barrel is fully assembled, the cooper tests it for leaks by injecting water and pressure. If a leak is found, the affected pieces are immediately replaced. To finish the barrel, coopers carefully sand the outside to achieve a perfectly smooth surface.

The Cooperage in La Charité-sur-Loire: Berthomieu-Ermitage

This cooperage is the result of merging two areas of expertise: Berthomieu and Ermitage. It is more industrial than La Grange, notably thanks to cutting machinery. It produces around 27,000 barrels per year — 4 to 5 per person per day.

Nevertheless, the wood comes from France’s most prestigious forests such as Tronçais and Bertranges, and the barrels are made to order with personalisation and finishing chosen by the client.

This visit to the Maison Charlois estate was fascinating and very informative. If you’d like to taste a Sancerre aged in oak barrels, come visit the Domaine for a tour and tasting, and meet Pauline.