A note of roundness ○ ALLEGRO
Following on from the excellent performance of PIANO® and in response to customer demand, the Tonnellerie Rousseau is proud to present ALLEGRO®.
Developed through innovation, this new offering has an infinitely more structured character which gives precedence to complexity over fresh tones and fruit intensity.

Integrating the same standards
Allegro® has been developed according to the same rigorous specifications as Piano® to enhance performance and ensure optimum standards of quality and consistency. The essential difference lies in the level of extraction*, which aims to bring out the full complexity and aromatic flavours of the oak, awakened through the toasting process.
True to these objectives, barrels undergo charring (i.e. heating at double the intensity), which effectively removes all undesirable compounds from the wood – an innovative concept direct from the Piano® range. Moreover, this process controls the strength of empyreumatic aromas and flavours, which give wine its burnt, charred and smoky tones, resulting from a higher toasting temperature.

For red wines and an added dimension of complexity
While Piano® excels at bringing out a wine’s refreshing, delicate and fruity character, Allegro® imparts distinct roundness, complexity and woody elements. Which is ideal for unlocking the full potential of grape varieties rich in structure and tannin content. Allegro® can also be used to produce fuller-bodied wines or, as an inherent result of aging in new barrels, to reveal their full aromatic complexity. Rich, woody tones without limitation Leveraging the expertise gained in developing Piano®, Tonnellerie Rousseau offers a quality solution without the constraints linked to traditional barrels.

ALLEGRO® - a winning performance
○ Quality as standard ○ Winning wines with consumer appeal ○ Authentic vine products, conformity with appellation of origin ○ Less time required for wine aging process ○ Excellent wine clarity ○ Expert advice on choosing products ○ Woody aromatic profile based on innovative concepts ○ Simple to use ○ performance and consistency across the range

Barrels seen from a new angle ○ PIANO
The Rousseau Coopers have innovated and offer their customers a new alternative to new barrels to better anticipate and respond to tomorrow’s needs.

Tonnellerie Rousseau > Piano
Associate time with quality is a challenge you make every day. A barrel made for short distances is an answer to your market constraints and structure.

Piano for tomorrow
Would ageing in wood have a tendency to reduce in time for a better response to the market’s demand? Here is a challenge for tomorrow ! Rousseau has the answer, a new barrel adapted to what is at stake in a worldwide market in full mutation. Short ageing without risk and with a new oak aromatic profile.

Made with French Oak rather than wood from a sole forest
A blend of fine grain oak associated with two methods of burning, which gives this barrel all the assets it needs. The organoleptic potential of a great French forestry region gets all of its nobility from a non-stressing burning process that is aimed at two objectives :

1. The authenticity of the aromatic range of your wine giving oak tannin controlled hydrolysis,
2. Neutralises the undesirable removable molecules

Visibility rhymes with legibility
The legibility of a wine is a determining factor during its entire maturing, and especially during the first months. The Tonnellerie Rousseau’s “Piano” brings you this comfort and will give you the hindsight you need to properly age your wine.

A new expression for my wines
He discovers a new style for his wines and he says: “This barrel gives me a technical solution for my wine-cellar logistic constraints and for my customers’ expectation, as well as a better quality and style. I have discovered another kind of comfort in my work and my customers were enthusiastic about the new aromatic flavour of my wines. Fresher, more limpid with very intense fruit, sustained by a good and more dynamic structure on the palate. My wines would not withstand ageing for too long and neither do my customers. By giving them this alternative we have at the same time rationalized our maturing and charmed our customers.

MASS MATURATION
Rousseau Cooperage innovates with its offer on large volumes.

OAK TRIALS
For the last 10 years, Rousseau has been implementing several oak trials in close cooperation with French and California wineries.

1) ROUSSEAU EXPERIMENTS:

a) Oak Blend barrels versus single Forest Oak barrels
The main focus of these experiments was to examine the interaction of oak sources and oak seasoning for Pinot Noir or Chardonnay ageing.Oak sources consisted in single forests such as Châtillon, Tronçais, Vosges or French Oak blends such as Finesse Blend (Center of France Blend) or Structure Blend (East of France Blend).Oak seasoning featured 12, 24, 36 months regimens.Each barrel of the experiment was toasted Medium Long and manufactured the same day by the same cooper with consistent methods and conditions.

For Rousseau cooperage and the wineries participating, the dual purpose of these oak trials was : - On one hand, a diverse tasting panel was giving each barrel sample an aromatic profile, more or less desirable to the winemaker's palate.- On the other hand, Rousseau was able to determine whether an oak source (and the supplied link to it) was satisfying or not.

b) Small oak barrels vessels versus Large oak barrel vessels:
The same Pinot Noir and Chardonnay lost were fermented and aged in different capacity Rousseau barrels (228L), Puncheons (450L), Maturation upright tank (3400L) and Round cask (3400L). The purpose of this experiment is to evaluate and compare the sensory impact of higher capacity vessels (increased bio-mass) with a traditional small barrel ageing process. We were able to show that small barrels, puncheons and tanks were interesting and sometimes complementary alternatives for the winemaker who works with various aromatic profiles and vintages.

Finally, chemical analysis enabled us to determine the amount of particular chemical compounds present in each barrel sample wine. These survey and chemical statistics are available upon request.