Wine press

“ By the aid of the machinery provided sixteen women, assisted by a couple of men, commonly wash some fifteen or sixteen thousand bottles in the course of a day. Here, too, stands one of the two large presses with which, at the epoch of the vintage, a hundred pièces of wine are pressed every four-and-twenty hours. The remaining press is installed in a cellier at the farther end of the garden on the other side of the road. ”

“ The building contains four presses, three of which are worked with large fly-wheels requiring several men to turn them, while the fourth acts with a screw applied by means of a long pole. At the vintage 3,600 kilogrammes, or nearly 8,000lbs., of grapes are put under each press, a quantity sufficient to yield eight to ten hogsheads of wine of forty-four 77 gallons each, suitable for sparkling wine, besides three or four hogsheads of inferior wine given to the workmen to drink. ”

“ Large carts with railed open sides are continually passing backwards and forwards to pick these baskets up, and when one of them has secured its load it is driven slowly—in order that the grapes may not be shaken—to the neighbouring pressoir, so extreme is the care observed throughout every stage of the process of champagne manufacture.
In many of the vineyards the grapes are inspected in bulk instead of in detail before being sent to the wine-press. ”

“ Four powerful presses of recent invention, each worked by a large fly-wheel requiring four sturdy men to turn it, were in operation. The grapes were spread over the floor of the press in a compact mass, and on being subjected to pressure—again and again repeated, the first squeeze only giving a high-class wine—the must filtered through a wicker basket into the reservoir beneath, whence, after remaining a certain time to allow of its ridding itself of the grosser lees, it is pumped through a gutta-percha tube into the casks. ”

“ However, the monks obtained a decree from parliament authorising them to take the fortieth of the vintage a month after the wines had been barrelled, unless the wine-growers preferred ‘to pay the tithe at the wine-press, in form of the fortieth load of grapes free from all mixture.’ The inhabitants appealed in 1780, pleading the impossibility of this plan of tithing at the press, on account of the expense and of the difficulty of sorting out the grapes from those brought from Moussy, Vinay, Monthelon, Cuis, Epernay, and other districts in which they had also vineyards. ”

“ Mixing the wine produces results similar to those caused by mixing the fruit, and it may be done by the wine maker as well as by the merchant. As they come from the vat, wines manifest the qualities and defects communicated by the vintage, and which are varied by a multitude of circumstances, such as the nature of the soil, varieties of grapes, temperature of the season, and the like. ”

“ We have explained that in the Champagne it is the custom for the manufacturers of sparkling wine to purchase considerable quantities of grapes from the surrounding growers, and to press these themselves, or have them pressed under their own superintendence. At Saumur only those firms possessing vineyards make their own vin brut, the bulk of the wine used for conversion into sparkling wine being purchased from the neighbouring growers. ”

“ I may only add, that the refuse skins, stalks, and so forth, which settle into the bottom of the fermentation vats, are taken out again after the wine has been drawn off, and subjected to a new squeezing—in a press, however, and not by the foot—the products being a small quantity of fiery, ill-flavored wine, full of the bitter taste of the seeds and stalks of the grape, and possessing no aroma or bouquet. ”

“ In order that sweet and fortified wines may be kept in storehouses subject to great changes of temperature, in bottles upright, or in casks in ullage—in other words, under the conditions in which brandy can be kept, they must contain 18 or 20 per cent. of alcohol. They age sooner in casks than in bottles. (See Aging.) ”

“ Select the finest wines of a year’s vintage, put them away by themselves, and carefully care for them and nurse them by racking, etc., during the year. The next year, separate the finest wines from the vintage, always leaving ullage in the casks of three to five gallons, according to size, and the bungs loose, simply laid over the hole. Go on in this way for five years. Now a fifth of this five-year-old wine may be drawn off for, and used to establish another solera, and the casks refilled from the four-year-old wine, which, of course, must be as nearly as possible of the same nature. ”

“ Under this Pretext, many Fessee Merchants, to make Rob, or Vinegar, press all the Grapes in their Vineyards, put it up in great Jars, under Ground, and keep it long, so that it proves excellent Wine. When four or five merry Companions, with every one his Mistress, appoint to be merry, they go out to their Vineyard or Garden, have Musick, and all or most of these Dishes, and there sit and carouse over a great earthen Bowl full of Wine, of about four or five Gallons, and so drink round in a Cup that will hold almost a Pint, like a large Tea Dish, till there is none left ”

“ The process is universal in France, with the exception of the cases of the sparkling wines of the Rhone and Champagne, the grapes for which are squeezed by mechanical means, not by the human foot. Now, very venerable and decidedly picturesque as is the process of wine-treading, it is unquestionably rather a filthy one; and the spectacle of great, brown, horny feet, not a whit too clean, splashing and sprawling in the bubbling juice, conveys, at first sight, a qualmy species of feeling, which, however, seems only to be entertained by those to whom the sight is new. ”

“ Wherever civilisation penetrates, champagne sooner or later is sure to follow; and if Queen Victoria’s morning drum beats round the world, its beat is certain to be echoed before the day is over by the popping of champagne-corks. Now-a-days the exhilarating wine graces not merely princely but middle-class dinner-tables, and is the needful adjunct at every petit souper in all the gayer capitals of the world. ”

“ The piled-up baskets, marked with the names of the vineyard-owners whose grapes they contain, are temporarily stored under a shed in a cool place, and are brought into the pressoir from time to time as required. In the district of the River the grapes are weighed, while in that of the Mountain they are measured, before being emptied on to the floor of the press. In some places the latter is of the old-fashioned type, resembling the ordinary cider-press; but usually powerful presses of modern invention, worked by a large fly-wheel requiring four sturdy men to turn it, are employed. ”

“ And even though the huge presses seem to squeeze the fruit as dry as a small dealer who has fallen into the hands of a trust, I am told that in some places the pulp is carefully preserved and shipped to wine manufacturers, who subject it to a further treatment, which enables them to make a champagne that, when properly labelled, will rank with the finest and most costly. Speaking of wines, if ancient tales tell true, this is the year for connoisseurs to lay in a supply. It is one of the superstitions of wine countries that wine made in a "comet year" surpasses all others in body and bouquet. ”

“ The Tonnerre vineyards are of high antiquity, and for sparkling wines the produce of the black and white pineau and the white morillon varieties of grape is had recourse to. The vintaging is accomplished with great care, and only the juice which flows from the first pressure is employed. This is run off immediately into casks which are hermetically closed when the fermentation has subsided. The after-treatment of the wine is the same as in the Champagne. ”

“ And if what you buy for port or sherry be not absolutely a decoction, but only inferior wine made up, then the water equally acts as a detective. For the dilution has the effect of separating, so to speak, the respective tastes of the component parts—brings them out, sir; and you get each distinct. You get, on the one hand, the taste of the bad brandy, harsh, raw, and empyreumatic: and you get, on the other hand, the taste of the poor, paltry wine, wretched stuff, the true vinho ordinario flavour, that makes you think at once of some dirty roadside Portuguese posada, swarming with fleas. ”

“ It is evident that in spite of the teachings of science the bursting of champagne bottles has not yet been reduced to a minimum, for whereas in some cellars it averages 7 and 8 per cent., in others it rarely exceeds 21⁄2 or 3. In the month of October, the first and severest breakage being over, the newly-bottled wine is definitively stacked in the cellars in piles from two to half-a-dozen bottles deep, from six to seven feet high, and frequently a hundred feet or upwards in length. ”

“ On descending into the basement beneath, the popping of corks and the continual clatter of machinery intimate that the disgorging and re-corking of the wine are being accomplished, and in the dim light we discern groups of workmen engaged in the final manipulation which champagne has to undergo, while fresh relays of wine are arriving from the cellars by the aid of endless chains. ”

“ We may be certain that such a one will never advertise: no man who really has the grands vins of esteemed vintages in his cellar need spend a shilling in advertisements, for he confers a favor on his customer by parting with such stock. But better and more satisfactory is it to obtain from time to time a piece or two of wine, of high character and reputed vintage, when they are to be had, just fit to bottle, and lay them down for years until ripe for use. ”

“ The vintage had not indeed as yet begun, but I saw the process performed on a small quantity of grapes, which had been ripened in a garden. Every vineyard proprietor, besides his stock-fruit, has some peculiar species of grape from which he makes the wine for his own use and that of his immediate friends: these grapes are very carefully picked and culled, and none but the soundest and best are thrown into the tub. The wine thus made is infinitely superior to the stock-wine for sale: when old, it is not inferior to Hock, and I believe is frequently sold as such by the foreign purchasers. ”

“ IN selecting a sparkling wine, one fact should be borne in mind—that just as, according to Sam Weller, it is the seasoning which makes the pie mutton, beef, or veal, so it is the liqueur which renders the wine dry or sweet, light or strong. A really palatable dry Champagne, emitting the fragrant bouquet which distinguishes all wines of fine quality, free from added spirit, is obliged to be made of the very best vin brut, to which necessarily an exceedingly small percentage of liqueur will be added. ”

“ We advance slowly in the uncertain light along a succession of gloomy galleries, with moisture oozing from their blackened walls and roofs, picking our way between bottles of wine stacked in huge square piles and rows of casks raised in tiers. ”

“ On every side bottles are reposing in various attitudes, the majority in huge square piles on their sides, others in racks 68 slightly tilted, others, again, almost standing on their heads, while some, which through over-inflation have come to grief, litter the floor and crunch beneath our feet. Tablets are hung against each stack of wine indicating its age, and from time to time a bottle is held up before the light to show us how the sediment commences to form, or explain how it eventually works its way down the neck of the bottle, and finally settles on the cork. ”

“ The cellar, too, should be neither over dark nor light, scrupulously clean, and sufficiently well ventilated for the air to be continuously pure. It is requisite that the bottles should rest on their sides to prevent the corks shrinking, and thus allowing both the carbonic acid and the wine itself to escape. For laying down champagne or any kind of sparkling wine an iron wine-bin is by far the best. ”

“ Thus an ale glass would be adorned with ears of barley or bunches of hops; a wine glass with vine leaves or bunches of grapes; a cider glass with sprays of apple blossom, and so forth.
Champagne was, in the eighteenth century, a wine of comparatively recent introduction, and was drunk only by the rich and great. Probably at first no special glasses were used for it, the more elegant of those already in existence, presumably bell-shaped and air-stemmed, being pressed into the service, but about 1730 special glasses were made, with wide, shallow bowls, of the double-ogee variety and a baluster. ”

“ When the grapes have to be transported in open baskets for some distance to the press-house, jolting along the road either in carts or on the backs of mules, and exposed to the torrid rays of a bright autumnal sun, the juice expressed from the fruit, however gently the latter may be squeezed, is occasionally of a positive purple tinge, and consequently useless for conversion into champagne. ”

“ The inherited French taste of the greater portion of the population, and the education by contact of the American element, makes claret the universal table wine. The climate, too, renders this wine particularly palatable, and during the long heated term it is seldom absent from the table of even the most economical. At the restaurant it is the exception to see a person dining without a bottle of vin ordinaire, while for breakfast, during hot weather, white wines of the lighter kinds are much used. ”