3-034-692 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Vintage of Medoc: the cuvier at Chateau Lafitte, 1871. The vine-growing district of Médoc, near Bordeaux in France. 'View of '...the place in which the grapes are pressed, in the cuves or vats provided for that use; this building is called the cuvier...The ordinary grapes, meantime, as fast as they are brought in and picked, are pressed by the feet of men, dancing briskly to the liveliest tune a couple of fiddlers can play. The whole mass is then cast into the vats, where the fermenting process naturally takes place. The vats are emptied as soon as the liquor is cold, which is after the lapse of from eight to ten or twelve days. A certain portion of the more highly fermented wine, from the cuve-mère, is added to that in each barrel taken from the ordinary cuves. Six months after the vintage, in March of the next year, the wine is racked, or transferred to a fresh cask, and sometimes fumigated with sulphur, to check acetous fermentation...It is usual to strengthen the wines of Bordeaux with a mixture of good Hermitage, and Roussillon is also employed for this purpose with the second - rate clarets. No other admixture is justifiable or can be attempted without destroying the wholesome and agreeable qualities of the wine'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.