Barrels of skill in Foxford

HAMMERING, clinking and sawing; the sounds of manual work at Dair Nua cooperage in Foxford. “You would want to be good with your hands to work here, and you need to be able to handle a heavy hammer,” says head cooper Darren Leonard.

“I repair and rejuvenate whiskey barrels. The distilleries are always looking for barrels. We have to make sure that the barrel is suitable to hold the liquid. So any time there is a barrel to be rejuvenated, we clean up the inside of the barrel, and we also change broken staves or hoops that need work, so the barrels will be able to hold liquid in future,” explains Leonard, the youngest of three master coopers in Ireland.

The level of skill required soon becomes. A cooper must wield the hammer numerous times, and every blow has to be perfect – too much force and the barrel might get damaged, too little won’t do the trick. It might look easy to the untrained eye, but try lifting the hammer with one hand and striking accurately. It is a skill that needs time and muscle to master.

Whiskey barrels in need of repair are delivered to Foxford from all over the world, from as far away as Colombia and Mexico.

At one time, there were over 500 coopers in Dublin alone. Today there is barely a handful in the whole country. But this ancient craft is on the rise again.

Dair Nua had employed two coopers in 2022; this number has risen to six now – including two qualified coopers and two apprentice coopers in Foxford, as well as support staff in France.

“It’s good to see the young people getting an interest in it and coming through. We have to rely on them to keep up the craft,” Leonard explains.

A large collection of different tools are hung on hooks along the wall in the work yard, and it takes years of experience to use them correctly. But probably the most impressive part for a visitor to Dair Nua is the de-charring process. A small flame is applied to the inside of the barrel, and the char is removed so that the stored liquid will be able to access a higher level of extractives – in other words, flavour.

They say whiskey gets up to 70 percent of its flavour from the barrel it’s stored in, so the de-charring process is vital.

Avoiding the angel’s share is one of the whiskey industry’s biggest unsolved mysteries. ‘The angel’s share’ refers to the amount of an whiskey lost to evaporation when the liquid is being aged in wooden barrels. Up to 1 percent of the volume of a cask can be lost each year this way, and the industry has yet to work out how to prevent the loss.

So, have the Foxford coopers found a way to deprive the angels of their sup? 

“No, unfortunately, we cannot avoid that,” says Darren with a smile. But then, maybe it’s best if some things remain a mystery.

For everything else, the Dair Nua coopers in Foxford are well equipped, especially the future.