PRESSOIR SEIGNEURIAL

The seigneurial wine press of Combles-en-Barrois was acquired in 1970 by the Tourist Office of Bar-le-Duc and installed in 1977 in the Rue des Ducs. Together with the abbey wine press of Beaulieu-en-Argonne, it is an essential witness to a rich wine-growing tradition in the Meuse. Until the arrival of phylloxera in the 19th century, Lorraine was an important wine-growing region and wine presses were present throughout the territory. Although not essential for wine production, the press makes pressing easier and makes it possible to process large quantities of grapes while avoiding losses. Tree presses of the type of the one in Combles-en-Barrois are efficient but very expensive instruments. They are the property of lords and abbeys and are made available to winegrowers. They are made of oak except for the screw, which is made of fine-grained wood (hornbeam, elm, cormier). The metal parts present are generally only reinforcing elements placed following a break or crack. The press is composed of a mobile shaft (1), most often the result of an assembly of beams girded by dolls (2), supported by two porticoes, the binoculars (3) and false binoculars (4). This shaft provided with a counterweight is actuated by means of the screw located at its end (5). The bread is first made: the grapes are spread out in several beds on the trough (6), each bed being covered with straw. The bread is covered with mats and then with planks. The tree is lifted up in order to free the needle (7). Thus freed from its supports, the tree weighs on the bread. The operation of the screw placed at its end increases the pressure: the grape juice flows into a stone vat equipped with a wicker basket designed to retain the woody parts of the bunches. After twelve to twenty hours of pressing, depending on the ripeness of the grapes, the pressing force is increased by sliding one or two cross-pieces into the mortises (8) of the binoculars. Once the tree is raised, the needle is replaced and the bread is removed. The latter can be distilled to obtain the pomace. In a single cuvée, between 4,400 and 5,500 litres of wine are thus pressed. This high yield compensates for the high cost of a tree-press, which requires large pieces of wood and five or six men to operate it. Although a communal wine press is mentioned in Combles-en-Barrois as early as the 15th century, this press does not seem to predate the 17th century. But in the absence of inscription and decoration, only an endrochronological study would give a reliable dating.