Three years after its launch at the Vinitech trade fair, Reoaked, the online marketplace for used barrels our house co-founded, has earned its place in the industry landscape. More than 200 sales completed, more than one million euros exchanged and a community of nearly 2,800 members: time to take stock, and to look ahead.
The genesis: why Baron co-founded Reoaked
Our house was born in 1875 in Les Gonds, near Saintes. For five generations, we have been making barrels for winemakers and distillers. This craft has taught us one simple thing: a well-maintained barrel lives a long life, and its value does not end with its first use. A barrique that has aged a wine can still serve a spirit, a vinegar, a beer. Provided, of course, that supply and demand can find each other.
As early as 2021, we launched a barrel reconditioning activity. This upcycling consists of collecting, assessing, repairing and putting back into circulation barrels that might otherwise have slept in a cellar, or ended up as firewood. Very quickly, one observation became clear. Used barrels were already circulating, but in an opaque way, through private deals, with no traceability and no guarantee. Sellers struggled to get value from their stock. Buyers struggled to source with confidence.
Reoaked was born from that observation. At the end of 2022, at the Vinitech trade fair, the platform was launched as a company in its own right, dedicated to trading used barrels between professionals, with Lionel Kreff as co-founder on the Baron side. The ambition was twofold from the start: to make barrel exchanges between professionals easier, and to better understand how barrels circulate on international markets. Reoaked draws on our cooper’s expertise to guarantee the traceability of the barrels, their assessment and their repair. This is what sets the platform apart from a simple classified ad: behind every transaction, there is a cooper’s eye.
Three years in figures
Three years on, the figures show how far the platform has come. Over the last 36 months, Reoaked has enabled more than 200 sales to be completed, for more than one million euros exchanged in net seller value. The average order stands at around €5,400, a sign that Reoaked handles professional lots, not single barrels sold for decoration. Behind each of these transactions, there is a seller who has turned an asset into value, a buyer who has sourced with confidence, and barrels that are back in service.
The community has grown alongside. Around 2,800 members are registered today, of whom nearly 1,750 have joined over the past three years. Winemakers, distillers, merchants, brewers: the profiles have diversified, in France and abroad.
On the supply side, the platform lists more than 200 active offers, representing more than 20,000 barrels available. That volume gives the second-hand market a depth it never had, and lets a buyer find the right barrel, in the right format, at the right time.
The recent trend calls for a nuanced reading. The number of transactions is holding steady, but we are seeing smaller orders in 2025 and 2026. We read this as a diversification towards smaller lots, consistent with the industry’s evolving needs. Buyers purchase more often, in more precisely adjusted quantities. The platform is adapting to it.
What Reoaked changes for winemakers and distillers
For a seller, Reoaked answers a very practical question: what to do with a dormant stock of barriques? In many cellars, barrels in good condition sit idle, for lack of a proper channel to resell them in good conditions. The platform makes it possible to give them value: appraisal, listing, visibility with a community of professional buyers, secure payment. A dormant asset becomes a resource again.
For a buyer, the challenge is sourcing. Buying a used barrel means buying its history: which wine or spirit it held, for how long, and what condition it is in. Reoaked provides what private dealing never could:
- documented traceability for every lot;
- a cooper’s assessment, with repair or reconditioning where needed;
- organised logistics, from the seller’s cellar to the buyer’s;
- a guarantee on the conformity of the barrels delivered.
Every listing is documented before going online: origin, capacity, previous contents, number of wines, general condition. The buyer knows what they are buying, the seller sells at a fair price.
In short, Reoaked professionalises a market that already existed, but relied on word of mouth. Everyone gains time, trust and value. And the platform plays one more role: by observing the flows, it becomes a tool for understanding how barrels circulate on international markets, for us as for our clients.
The circular economy, at the heart of the project
Our commitment to Reoaked is not an opportunistic diversification. It is the natural extension of the house’s CSR approach. Since 2021, our reconditioning activity has been giving a second life to barrels that still have much to offer. The platform scales that logic up to the size of a market.
The context proves the approach right. Oak is a precious resource, under pressure, whose growth cycles are measured in decades. Reusing a barrel means quality wood that does not need to be harvested. At the same time, the whisky and rum industries are eager for wine barrels to age their spirits: a barrel that has done its work in a Bordeaux or Charente cellar finds a second career with a distiller. Finally, declining wine consumption is prompting estates to optimise their barrel stocks. The second-hand market is thus structuring growth built on reuse.
At Baron, this conviction also translates into concrete commitments: for every barrique we make, an oak tree is planted, and we are working to decarbonise our activities. Every barrel that circulates on Reoaked instead of being destroyed or forgotten is part of that same logic of preserving resources.
Recognition beyond our industry
Three years after its launch, Reoaked was honoured at the Vinitech-Sifel 2024 Innovation Trophies. This distinction, received at the very trade fair where the platform was born two years earlier, validates the original idea: the industry needed a trusted tool for used barrels.
The press has also covered the story, from the very beginning. Les Échos devoted an article to the project on 30 November 2022, followed by France 3, Réussir Vigne and La Revue du Vin de France. In 2023, Forbes Italia took an interest in Reoaked in turn, a sign that the reuse of barrels is a subject that crosses French borders. For a family house like ours, this attention is an encouragement. It confirms that the circular economy applied to cooperage is not a niche, but a deep evolution of the industry.
Outlook: the next three years
The record is solid, but the essential still lies ahead. The used-barrel market is young, growing, and its structuring has only just begun. Three priorities will guide the coming years.
International, first. Barrels already move between countries and between industries. Reoaked intends to support that movement by expanding its community of buyers and sellers beyond France, wherever demand for wine barrels is strong, particularly among distillers. Logistics and traceability, already at the heart of the platform, will be decisive assets on these markets.
Services, next. Assessment, logistics and guarantee are Reoaked’s foundation. The team will keep strengthening them: finer appraisal of the value of barrel stocks, end-to-end logistics support, reconditioning tailored to each buyer’s needs.
The ambition, finally, remains the same as on day one: to make Reoaked the reference for used barrels, a tool that serves the whole industry. Our house will keep bringing to it what it has known how to do since 1875: the cooper’s expertise. The (re)valuation market, in a context of resource preservation, promises the platform many more good years.
Do you have barrels to sell, or an ageing project to equip? We invite you to discover the platform at Reoaked.com. The team is at your disposal for any appraisal or question.
