Then along came the horizontal big capacity, automatic wine press. This had the great advantage of needing a great deal less labour to operate it as the whole tank that could be thrown in, in one go and with the automatic programme, the wine maker could go off and do something else , or have supper. Everybody agreed that there was a distinct drop in the quality of the press wine but the advantages seemed to outweigh this.

At Domaine du Fontenay, we  used to have one of these.

 I have seen all my local fellow producers throw out their old fashioned press left to them by their father or grandfather and buy a new fangled automatic horizontal one. We have done exactly the opposite and have exchanged our big horizontal one for a small vertical one.

What are the advantages of a small vertical press?