Tonnellerie Baron

The house

Henri Baron set up as a cooper in 1875, and the family kept the trade. In 1996 Xavier Baron and Nicolas Tombu, the 5th generation, took the business on and formed the present company at Les Gonds, beside Saintes, in Charente-Maritime. Lionel Kreff came in as a 3rd partner in 2001, and Sébastien Lane as a 4th in 2009, the year new workshops opened. The 4 run the house together.

Its name in the trade rests on what it made for the cellar as much as on its barrels. In 1999 it designed OXOline, a system of racks for barrels in the cellar, which won a gold trophy for innovation at Vinitech, the Bordeaux trade fair, in 2002. That year the house began selling in the United States. Nicolas Tombu, now its president, had filed the patent for the rack in France on November 16, 1999. A 2nd patent of his, filed in 2000, was extended to Europe, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina. In 2009 the rack was filed in China too, in the name of Tonnellerie Baron (巴隆桶业). Every toasting has been followed by computer since 2014, and the house now runs Reoaked, an online market for used barrels. It works only split French oak, seasoned for 3 summers.

In 2025, its 150th year, the house was making about 15,000 barrels a year with about 50 people. About 70% of its barrels go abroad. Since 2022 it has kept an office at Saint-Émilion, among the estates, for tastings. For the 2022 vintage Château Cheval Blanc worked mainly with 5 coopers and, on smaller volumes, with a few other houses, Baron among them. Its grand vin of the 2025 vintage was raised with 7 coopers, Baron again among them. Those are the records of those 2 years.

At a glance

Kind

Cooperage

Based in

Les Gonds, near Saintes; office at Saint-Émilion

Founded

1875, by Henri Baron; the present company from 1996

Owner

Family and independent, run by its partners since 1996

Direction

Nicolas Tombu, president; Xavier Baron and Lionel Kreff, managing directors; Sébastien Lane, co-manager

Brands

OXOline, Culte, ALMA, Reoaked

Abroad

About 70% of its barrels; the United States from 2002

In the record

Cheval Blanc, 2022 and 2025 vintages