TRAD : Tonnellerie Sylvain, la rencontre du bois et du vin

The company's origins

In 1957, Jean-Luc's father, Gérard Sylvain, opened his first barrel-repair workshop in the centre of Libourne. Jean-Luc Sylvain added his knowledge and experience of engineering to the family craftsmanship. Thanks to a number of exciting technical innovations, the repair workshop became a production facility and, in 1984, Jean-Luc Sylvain founded SARL Tonnellerie Sylvain.

The move to Saint Denis de Pile

The boom in the 1990s opened up new prospects and markets: the company was extended and became better-equipped as the product developed. In 1991, to cope with this expansion, Tonnellerie Sylvain moved to Saint Denis de Pile, a few kilometers from Libourne and Saint-Emilion.

Jean-Luc Sylvain's concern to optimize the quality of the barrels and his love of the oak trees in the high forests of central France led him to set up his own wood lot on the Saint-Denis de Pile site. The firm's declared aim was to achieve better control over the quality of the raw material and fine-tune wood purchasing to meet stringent customer standards.

Aquitaine's leading entrepreneur in 2008

Jean-Luc Sylvain received the Aquitaine entrepreneur's prize in 2008, in recognition of the firm's dynamic business and international reputation.