Traditional French Oak Vinegar Barrel with Stand

This traditional wooden vinaigrier has been part of the main kitchen at Chanteduc, Patricia and Walter Wells's farmhouse near Vaison-la-Romaine, since the day they arrived. It came with the house — already seasoned with years of slow fermentation — and Patricia simply kept it going. She confirms it still makes great vinegar, which is perhaps the most persuasive endorsement any kitchen object could receive. The barrel itself is compact and beautifully proportioned: dark oak staves bound with iron hoops, the wood deepened to a rich espresso brown through long use. A small turned wooden spigot sits at the front for drawing off vinegar, and the opening at the top is loosely covered with a square of red-and-white checked cloth — practical, charming and entirely in keeping with a working Provençal kitchen. The stand is a different story: clean-lined pale oak, with a lower shelf and a cradle that holds the barrel at a gentle tilt. Walter built it himself in his woodworking atelier, and it fits the barrel as though it were always meant to be there. The method is the traditional slow one — adding leftover wine gradually and allowing the mother culture to work at its own pace. Set this on a kitchen worktop or a pantry shelf, keep it fed with good wine, and it will reward you indefinitely. For anyone with counter space and a taste for doing things properly, barrel and stand together make a genuinely useful object with a provenance that is hard to improve upon.