Brive Tonneliers inaugurates its toasting room 3.0

Digital transformation of an ancestral craft: a toasting room 3.0
The cooper's craft contributes to the worldwide reputation of wine. A barrel is a luxury product whose raw material, the stave wood, comes from the most prestigious French state forests, most of them more than two hundred years old. It is also one of the ingredients of a precise blend to create an excellent wine. To this traditional know-how, Brive Tonneliers brings a technical response by making use of new technologies.

For several years now, a barcode has made it possible to trace the product throughout the production process. In the completely renovated toasting room, the barcode is scanned at several stages of the manufacturing flow in order to record the different temperature levels and the frequency of passage over the various heaters. When the barrel is ready to leave for the customer, the barcode is replaced by a QR code linked to a user-centric application accessible on any smartphone. Thanks to a tasting sheet built into the web solution, the customer can share their user experience with Brive Tonneliers, which, as feedback comes in, will be able to refine, or even personalize, the identity of its barrel* according to its contents.

Innovation is part of Brive Tonneliers' DNA. This is what prompted the company to adopt a technology that exists elsewhere and adapt it to its craft. Brive Tonneliers is thus the first cooperage to implement individualized production through personalized toasting. The company's goal is of course to optimize the manufacturing of its future products, to listen to its customers located around the world through this new high-performance tool, and to offer them a unique barrel.

Indeed, although only 2% of global wine production goes into barrels, the market is largely globalized. At Brive Tonneliers, international business accounts for 85% of its activity. The tandem of a web application relaying customer feedback and the recording of all production data is a major tool for continuous improvement, precision and product exclusivity. The group will thus be able to offer a luxury product, fully customizable to each winegrower's terroir. A wine is Great when it becomes unique; to elevate it, its barrel is now unique… ?A unique barrel for a unique wine?, such is the ambition of Brive Tonneliers.

60 years of a living industrial heritage 100% French
The history of Brive Tonneliers began in 1935 when François Treuil opened a cooperage in one of the main chestnut-growing areas of France, in the Corrèze region, in Brive la Gaillarde. In 1958, SARL Treuil was officially created. Under the influence of the work of the Bordeaux school led by Messrs Ribéreau-Gayon and Peynaud, chestnut was gradually replaced by oak during the 70 and 80, the oenological virtues of Quercus Petrea and Quercus Robur having since been unanimously recognized. In 1998, TFF Group, based in Saint Romain (Burgundy), acquired the company, which took the name Brive Tonneliers in 2008, in order to establish an unprecedented circle of Masters and to proudly claim its Corrèze roots around the world.

At 60 years old, the company continues to invest in the future. Through the digitalization of its craft, but also by welcoming young apprentices through an On-the-Job Training program (FEST) leading to the CAP Tonneliers diploma, created in 2014, and whose diplomas for the 2e class ?Joseph François? will also be awarded on this occasion.