2-913-854 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wine-Making, at the Chateau Lafitte, 1854. 'After the grapes have been gathered, they are placed into a tub called a cuvier de pressoir, in which they are trodden, the juice flowing out of a hole at the side of the press into a sieve below, which retains the skins, stones, and other extraneous matter, and thence into tubs. The wine-treaders principally consist of strong men that can bear the fatigue of the "wine-dance." Champagne and Rhone wines are generally made by machine pressing - a method which certainly seems preferable, in point of cleanliness, to the ordinary method of treading, which is universal in the claret country. Attempts have been made to introduce this new system into the great vintages of France, but the proprietors insist that no contrivance, however ingenious, can ever compete with the human foot for grape-pressing purposes...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.