About Us
The Tonnellerie Rousseau is a family owned business founded by Julien Rousseau in 1954. At this time, the company has a vats building (large volume casks) and repairing activity. In 1985, of Jean-Marie Rousseau’s will, the first 228 litre French oak cask was build. Since then, Jean-Marie kept giving a fresh impetus to the company.
Today, Jean-Marie is helped with his two sons, Jean-Christophe, the Production Site Manager for Large Vats, and Frédéric, Sales Director.
The Tonnellerie Rousseau makes 10000 casks and barriques per year, and approximately 100 vats, delivered to 20 different countries in the world.
Company history :
1954 : The company is created.
1976 : The company becomes a Limited Company (3 employees).
1985 : Start of the cooperage activity (with 201 casks for the first year).
1990 : Management change with Jean-Marie as the General Director instead of Julien who retires.
2001 : Creation of the Aromatic Profiles Range. Recruitment of Jean-Christophe, who just passed his certificate in Cognac, after 2 years of training in Saint Désir de Lisieux (14).
2003 : The vats and tanks are standardized. The trade activity for Large Volume products is stopped.
2004 : Frédéric is recruited in the company. 5 employees receive the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman of France – MOF), including Julien Rousseau the founder of the company.
2005 : The 1rst cask of the Expert Range, piano®, is launched.
2007 : Again, 5 employees receive the title of MOF, making to 10 the number of employees who have the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree, including Jean-Marie and Jean-Christophe Rousseau (3 generations of MOF in the family).
2008 : In reference to the MOF title, the vidéo® cask is added to the Expert Range.
2010 : The founder, Julien, celebrates his 80th birthday.
Skills and Expertise
We have put together a team of experts with over 50 years of combined experience in winemaking and cask ageing. This expertise has been fundamental in the development of a number of our Large Volume Products (tuns and vats) and 57 to 600 litre casks.
Our experts provide solutions for a wide range of casks ageing problems from large capacity ageing to the more traditional or sophisticated products. They also use design and planning software to advise on the construction and installation of cellars and storage tanks.
Health and safety
For a number of years we have concentrated on eradicating a recurrent problem in the industry, that of the ‘musty or corky flavor’ (TCA-TCP) produced by the casks. In partnership with an independent laboratory with a worldwide reputation in this field, we have developed a number of measures designed to control and eradicate any risk of contamination.
They cover:
– Environment control (production areas, storage areas, logistics vehicles)
– Controlling the raw materials used in the production areas and elsewhere on site
– Controlling the finished products
– Systematically filtering and controlling the water supply
– A ‘Contamination Confinement’ procedure for loading containers
Research & Development
Since 2004, our R&D department has generated a number of initiatives to improve customers’ cask ageing processes. This has led us to create a new range of products, the Expert Range.
We use an external agency to control all R&D activities.
Our unique objective is to offer high quality and high performance products to our customers and the cooperage industry.