PPBart
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Reading some about winemaking history, came across an interesting passage about French winemaking in the 300-400 AD period:
"After picking, grapes were crushed with bare feet. The must, or grape juice, was then poured into giant vats, followed by a process called 'pigeage', in which naked workers plunged themselves into the frothy liquid. Holding tightly to chains that had been fastened to overhead beams, the workers would then raise and lower themselves over and over again, stirring the must with their entire bodies so as to aerate the mixture and enhance the fermentation. It was a dangerous exercise. Hardly a harvest went by without some workers losing their grip and drowning, or being asphyxiated by the carbonic gas given off by the fermenting juice. Victims were almost always men, since women, in some parts of France, were barred from the 'chai', or winery, during harvestime. Their presence, according to superstition, would turn the wine sour."
Source: Wine & War, by Don and Petie Kladstrup, pg 18.
"After picking, grapes were crushed with bare feet. The must, or grape juice, was then poured into giant vats, followed by a process called 'pigeage', in which naked workers plunged themselves into the frothy liquid. Holding tightly to chains that had been fastened to overhead beams, the workers would then raise and lower themselves over and over again, stirring the must with their entire bodies so as to aerate the mixture and enhance the fermentation. It was a dangerous exercise. Hardly a harvest went by without some workers losing their grip and drowning, or being asphyxiated by the carbonic gas given off by the fermenting juice. Victims were almost always men, since women, in some parts of France, were barred from the 'chai', or winery, during harvestime. Their presence, according to superstition, would turn the wine sour."
Source: Wine & War, by Don and Petie Kladstrup, pg 18.
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