Wine in France in the 1930s (Winemaking)

Press in Gevrey-Chambertin (Burgundy, circa 1930) Click & enlarge Here is the second part on this story on French wineries in the 1930s'. Images sometimes speak more than texts, and many of these pictures shot in or around wineries in diferent regions of France give insightful information on tools, sizes and procedures. This was an era where the details of winemaking were not as much the object of interest from the part of the general population. The concept of wine tourism would have seemed completely out of place for most of the workers and vignerons on these pictures, and I think that these scenes represent a genuine reality without any intention to show themselves better than they are. I added "circa 1930" with the caption but many of these pictures may have been shot in the 1920s', even if in the late part of the decade.

When I'll add notes about the pictures, it will be a traduction of Maurice Constantin Weyer's text, or of the caption text.
Here, the caption under the picture says : In a street of Gevrey-Chambertin, the red grapes are pressed right after the destemming and they will give white juice.

Empty bénatons outside a coop - click & enlarge Destemming of the grapes and filling of a press Caption : destemming is practiced in the Bordelais and in Burgundy, the stem being taken off which makes the wine less astringent. After destemming, the grapes go straight into vats where they ferment. Press in the courtyard of a Burgundy winery (ca 1930)[Look at this strange press type - see also the hand-powered juice pump in the foreground] A pressoir from the monks era at Clos de Vougeot (Burgundy) [ This press dates from the 12th century and it is still in place today -see this picture by Jean-Baptiste Feldmann ] Old press in a street of Beaune with in the background the famous Hotel-Dieu (ca 1930) Grape juice flowing from the press (ca 1930) The barrel market on the streets of Beaune (ca 1930) Shop selling cellar tools and harvest baskets in Beaune (ca 1930) Man repairing casks in a street of Gevrey Chambertin (Burgundy ca 1930) A press in Champagne (ca 1930) [ Another strange press design ] A vendangeoir [chai] with presses and casks to receive the juice (ca 1930) [Yet another now-didappeared type of press, in the background] />The spring tirage in Champagne, where wine is bottled with a sugar- cane dosage (ca 1930) Moving the bottles of Champagne (remuage) on the riddling tables Disgorgement (dégorgeage of the sediment on a Champagne bottle (ca 1930) Dosage and bottling on Champagne (ca 1930) Bottling taking place at a négociant house [Bouchard] (ca 1930) Moving old wine from a bottle to another in a cellar (ca 1930) Large-capacity cement vats in a region producing big volumes of wines [unmentioned] Cellar in the Touraine (Loire - ca 1930) Cooperage school at the Halles Aux Vins in Paris (ca 1930) A vigneron in his cellar (ca 1930)

Here is the real caption in French, which could be the moral of this story :
Le vigneron dans la cave familiale, et la barrique d'honnête pinard Pinard is a humoristic slang word meaning vulgar wine of ordinary quality
In this context, the sentence would mean : "The vigneron in his family cellar filling a bottle of his honest and simple wine."
Honnête pinard, that's exactly the term that many of us like, and I'm probably not alone to try to imagine how this vulgar but honest wine tasted like...

Comments

[Mariëlla]

Thanks for sharing these great photographs! I have enjoyed them enormously, and will come back later to have a closer look!
Regards from the Netherlands, where this is even more a 'different' world then in France!

[rafa bernabe]

Que cosa mas bella, salud

[G. W. Tenery]

Wonderful photographs! A simpler time for sure.

[Cedarglen]

A wonderful collection and thank you. Lest anyone forget, wine making is labor-intensive, very hard work!

[Joseph Di Blasi]

What an interesting post! Thanks for sharing!

Cheers!