During the renovation of one of the outbuildings at Sainte Rose a floor needed to be replaced and, upon the removal of the existing one, we found an old ‘fouloir’ or grape crusher that dates from the 1950’s.
This enormously heavy piece of equipment was extremely difficult to extricate, but now sits out in the yard, waiting for a new coat of paint before going on display at the entrance of the Domaine.
The timings of this find were ironic, given we have just invested in a brand new destemmer/crusher, which is being used for the first time this harvest. We were fortunate enough to receive European grant funding for this purchase, through FranceAgriMer.