DeFarrari (McMinnville) is a cooper, a traditional barrel maker, a centuries-old craft necessary to aging wine. First schooled in the renowned Burgundy region of France, DeFerrari has spent decades attaining a deep knowledge of barrel toasting. The results of his craft are the oak flavors wines acquire while aged in his vessels, and a product that keeps his services in demand.
Bio
Rick DeFarrari is a traditional barrel maker or cooper. He grew up in Scholls, a small town southwest of Beaverton, Oregon, next to a winery where he worked early in his career. From the beginning, he felt a connection with the oak barrels. In 1992, DeFerrari traveled to France and made connections with François Frères Cooperage, with whom his Oregon employer did business. At the Burgundy cooperage, DeFerrari was given an intense grounding in the traditional craft of cooperage—from log selection to the completed barrel—which doesn’t rely on nails or glue to hold together. After returning to Oregon, DeFerrari struck up a business relationship with Frères. This partnership lasted eight years, until DeFerrari founded Oregon Barrel Works in 2000, the only full-line cooperage operating on the West Coast outside of California. DeFerrari is continually bettering his product. His process begins with sourcing 120 to 150 year-old trees from private landowners in the Willamette Valley. Next, DeFerrari cuts the wood into staves, individual lengths that he shapes individually to ensure the strength and water-tightness of the barrel. Once he puts a barrel together, he “toasts” the entire container and then crafts a custom head (lid) for it. The type of oak, its toast level, and its age all affect the flavor and structure of the wine aged in a barrel. An oak barrel may last 20 years, but since it won't impart any flavor after four to five years, many wineries regularly replace barrels, which further helps to keep this age-old craft alive.
