Coopers play with fire, we play with fire every day, because fire, when it’s used correctly, is our best friend.

It’s an ancient skill and some might say a bit of a dying art but Andrew young has been a barrel maker for his entire career.

Andrew: I’ve been a Cooper for since 1976 when I first joined Penfolds and from there I’ve done coopering all my life.

Leigh: Do you mass produce them or are they all made individually?

Andrew: All the barrels I make now are all individual in themselves. Every single barrel every piece, there’s nothing here today at Seppeltsfield that’s mass produced. My line of work is a specialty within itself, we’ve gone for a special niche market so everything I do is done by hand.

Leigh: Andrew, now your work is going to China and I believe your barrels are the latest must have for the Chinese?

Andrew: That’s right Leigh, I am very lucky, a lot of people in Hong Kong want to buy my barrels. I have a shipment of eighty going there shortly, and it’s all for corporate gifts.

Leigh: And these are your barrels full of fabulous port or something?

Andrew: That’s right, my barrels made here with Seppeltsfield wine. Over there it’s like a Ferrari, everyone wants one but not everyone can have one. And now Andrew is sharing his trade secrets with anyone who cares to join him around the fire for a day in the life of a cooper.

Andrew: I wanted people, particularly blue chip companies, people that are worn out, tired, and come here and make a barrel. It’s all about sharing the experience. Many people can come to a winery, meet the winemaker and taste the wine but we want to extend it right out. I can’t think of anything worse than putting wood into a machine, pushing a button and a barrel comes out the other end. I love my work and when people come here you can learn and use tools that are hundreds of years of age.

Leigh: So Cooper for a day sounds very exciting!

Andrew: It’s great!

Leigh: What do you do?

Andrew: Well everyone arrives here, it’s a maximum of four people for a day and they come in here and the first thing we do is introduce them to the cooperage, the business and we talk about all aspects of cooperage and we start off with a Barossa Valley morning tea, a Coopers morning tea and that’s where we discuss what each person will do that day. The ultimate is that they make a barrel for themselves in a day-some won’t achieve that, but that’s okay, they’re here to enjoy it and eventually they get their own barrel.

So we start with selection of the timber and we learn about the hand tools, not the power tools- this is a day where they do it all by hand- so they handcraft their own barrel. Some people work faster than others and some work slower and that’s where we come in.

Leigh: That’s beautiful, and so we plane this?

Andrew: We take all this off back to fresh wood. We select the timber and any deflectable we throw out. Knots or bad wood, we select it for straight grain. The staves cut to length and then we hand join it on a hand planer and set the barrel up and then put the barrel over a fire so we bend the barrel and after an hour it comes off the fire and we make up the end of the barrel.

Leigh: Do you have to have any woodworking experience or can a proverbial nong like me actually have a go.

Andrew: We like people from all walks of life to come in. I’m not biased in any way shape or form, I’ve had women come through and really enjoy it, company executives that are burned out and I’ve even had team building, I’ve had corporate teams come through and at the end of the day we’ll even put on your company logo on the end of the barrel if that’s what they want.

Leigh: Andrew you’ve had some ups and downs in life, made redundant, started your own business, what’s your philosophy on life? Andrew: quite simple: there’s always someone worse off than yourself. That’s number one. But above all in my case, power on, don’t back off and attack everything as best you can.

Leigh: So with Andrew’s help your barrel will go from this, to this. Perfect! And the added bonus is that you can pop down to the tasting room and fill it with your favourite fortified; so if you’re interested in being cooper for a day contact Seppeltsfield.