The Second Life of a Lodi Wine Barrel

All around Woodbridge Winery in Acampo, visitors can see wine barrels as they are currently used and how they area re-used as planters. Although planters are the most commonly made item from old wine barrels, other things such as tables, chairs and even dog houses are made from the aging casks. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

The Second Life of a Lodi Wine Barrel

From planters and ice chests to fountains and gold fish ponds, wine barrels are being creatively reincarnated.

By Marc Lutz
Lodi Living Editor

Friday, July 6, 2007 10:43 PM PDT

Comments (2 comment(s))

Behold! The amazing wine barrel! It can do more than hold a robust merlot or killer cabernet. It can become a planter, an ice chest, a mailbox stand, a wine rack, a ... you get the picture.

Perhaps no other tool of agriculture can be so versatile when its primary use has been outlived than the traditional wine barrel.

There can be many reasons why a barrel's ability to ferment wine comes to an end — whether it's leakage, dulled flavors or simply the winemaker's choice to get rid of it. When wineries have deemed it necessary to retire a barrel, they have many options. Some have them refurbished and retoasted, some break them down for oak chips and some, like different Lodi wineries, sell them.

In fact, Woodbridge Winery in Acampo has sold a few thousand barrels this year alone. The buyers range from smaller wineries looking for more inexpensive storage means to entrepreneurs who give wine barrels a second chance at life as something like a planter, a bench or, yes, even a doghouse.

Even though the planter is the most popular use for an old wine barrel, there are plenty of other options. Steve Harden, owner of Barrels and Things in West Sacramento, specializes in turning the barrels into wishing wells.

Larry Pilmaier, Woodbridge Winery's visitors center manager, talks about how redwood wine vats built in the '30s are now used for storage of their red wines. The counters in the visitors center are made from one of the tanks that was dismantled. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

"I was raised on a dairy," said Harden. "The old well on the dairy, it didn't look right. So I've taken it to a plateau it hadn't been taken to before."

Nine years ago Harden began creating wishing wells from old wine barrels, complete with fountain. The prices range from $300 up to $550.

"When I go over to Reno I do quite well. I take a load over there and I sell," Harden said. He has also found quite a market in just the barrels themselves.

Most of the half-barrels, cut widthwise around the middle of the barrel, are popular in places like Placerville and Lake Tahoe as planters, Harden said. Green thumbs in those areas have problems with tough soil and moles. So they use the barrels as planters, using potting soil and fertilizer to grow whatever they want.

One of Harden's clients uses the half-barrels to plant his fruit orchards. If there's a freeze, he can use a forklift to move his trees around.

Lisa Lombardo of Elk Grove created UsedWineBarrels.com four and a half years ago as a side business.

"I wanted to stay at home with my kids and home school them," Lombardo said. "When I started researching wine barrels on eBay, nobody was selling them."

David Lucas, owner of Lucas Winery in Lodi, points to a wine stain on the redwood paneling that lines this tasting room walls. The redwood came from an old wine vat that was used at Woodbridge Winery in Acampo. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

Together with her husband Christopher Lombardo, Lisa Lombardo sells wine barrels that are cut either lengthwise or widthwise as planters — the standard fare — or as something more creative.

Christopher Lombardo will use a stave of the wine barrels (the long pieces of curved wood that make up the barrel's bulging body) and drill between five to seven holes in them. After finishing and protecting the wood, it can then be used to hold votives or long candlesticks.

Another thing the Lombardos sell is an entire barrel that has been converted into an ice chest. They will install a latching door on the face of a barrel, lay it on its side and, voila, instant ice chest. They also build tables from the barrels.

"People will buy just the heads," Lisa Lombardo said of the tops and bottoms of the barrels. "They attach ball bearings to them and make them into lazy susans.

Both Lisa Lombardo and Harden work with Paul Gray, owner of Knothole Creations in West Sacramento. Gray tends to get even more creative with his used wine barrel designs.

Gray builds variations of water fountains, children's table and chair sets and outdoor patio furniture ... all from used wine barrels.

Some of the more elaborate items Gray has created are decorative mining cars, wine racks and arbors.

Each business gets their barrels from various sources; however, Woodbridge Winery seems to be a popular source for each.

This time of year, Woodbridge Winery goes through a process called culling.

"We're making room for the harvest that is coming in," said Visitors Center Manager Larry Pilmaier. "We're going to be putting new wines in barrels. Then we'll be taking the oldest barrels, emptying them and getting them out of the warehouse."

Woodbridge Winery tends to sell the barrels for $20 to $40 depending on how many they have for sale in a given year. Employees get a break on the price.

(Marc Lutz/News-Sentinel)

"We just (sold) a couple thousand barrels," Pilmaier said. One company from Jamestown came down and picked up 700 barrels. He went on to say the winery pays anywhere from $700 to $800 for brand new barrels, depending on if they're made from French or American oak.

Pilmaier himself has about 10 reincarnated barrels in his yard at home.

"I have fountains, gold fish ponds, planters, rain barrels under the gutters," said Pilmaier. "As long as they're kept full of water, they'll last for years and years. If you keep them out in the open without water or wine in them, they'll fall apart in a matter of months. They dry up."

Pilmaier said his favorite remodeled wine barrel would have to be a dog house. "Just because I'm a dog lover," he said.

What if a person wants to use the wood of a wine barrel, but the staves aren't big enough? They could always follow the examples of Woodbridge or David Lucas, owner of The Lucas Winery in Lodi: Redwood vats.

The tasting counters and main customer service counter in the visitors center of Woodbridge Winery is made from redwood coming from vats built for the winery in the 1920s and '30s.

At Lucas Winery, the walls of the tasting room are built out of the vat staves.

"All of this redwood is old vat wood," Lucas said. "The tank came from Woodbridge Winery. While I was at Mondavi, they were tearing down the old redwood tanks. These were 20,000 to 50,000 gallon tanks. I purchased the staves from (them) and took them down to San Joaquin Lumber to have them milled."

As the wood was being milled, old wine seeped out of the wood, staining it.

"It takes about two years for the smell to go away," said Lucas.

Lucas Winery, like other area wineries, sells used barrels. Lucas will give the barrels to really good friends, wine club members and restaurateurs at no cost. Otherwise, he typically sells them for $75 to $100. Right now his cost to purchase a new barrel is about $1,100.

Lucas re-uses old barrels throughout his winery as tables and decorations, and has seen them made into camp chairs and candle holders.

What's his favorite wine barrel second life?

"Dog houses," said Lucas.

Of course.

Contact Lodi Living Editor Marc Lutz at marcl@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

slop wrote on Jul 20, 2007 9:39 PM:

" bought a whole barrel, just wondering if anyone out there has any ideas on how to cut it length ways. "

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ginger wrote on Jul 9, 2007 4:56 PM:

" I have my barrel from Woodridge Winery, it came all the way to Scottsdale, AZ with me and I use it as a side table in my living room. It's about as much of a taste of Lodi as I can handle. :) "

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