L'Échange parfait - Du tonneau au vin

When Mr. Carle, maitre de Chai of Le Clos d’Estournel, is discussing his wine, he speaks of his love. To develop and to attain the fullness of its flavour, the wine must be left in the care of the casks as a child with a nurse; there must be absolute confidence. The making of casks which can inspire this confidence involves a series of precisely detailed operations, little changed over the last 20 generations. In the workshops ; the roar of the blaze and the symphony of hammering, the din is all pervading. The dervish like choreographs of the coopers are danced in the sweltering shops which glow like the depths of hell, and yet at the end of the line there stand the casks, smooth, round and pot-bellied, like wooden Buddhas, off to the religious silence of the store-houses of the finest vintages.