Il ne n’agit ni d’un puits ni d’une cheminée, mais d’une jitte (du verbe jeter) également appelé botte.
Il désigne un petit édifice de pierre permettant de déverser le raisin depuis les vignes situées sur le terrain du haut jusque dans les pressoirs qui se trouvaient en dessous, dans les caves.
Les jittes étaient placées sur le rebord des chemins pour faciliter la manoeuvre des charrettes.
Après la seconde guerre mondiale, les techniques se modernisant, les terrains s’agrandissant, les jittes n’étaient plus indispensables.
Le grand-père de Jean Michel, qui habitait le saumurois où cette photo a été prise, en avait une.
It is neither a well nor a chimney stack, but a jitte (from the verbe jeter which means throw), also called a botte. It was a low stack through which the grapes harvested in the vineyard overhead were tipped directly onto the wine presss in the underground cellar belows.
Jittes were placed on the edge of pathways so the wagons full of grapes could access them easily. After World War II, with more modern techniques and larger vineyards, jittes were no longer necessary.
Jean Michel’s grandfather, who lived in the Saumur area where the photo was taken, had a jitte.
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6 replies on “Jitte de pressoir”
Merci pour ce blog. J’ai vu ces édifices, et connais leurs fonction, mais pas comment elle s’appele en français. Je fera un lien à mon blog sur l’une chez Clos Roussely.
Qui a fait l’esquisse au dessus? Il m’amuse.
Thanks for this post. I’ve seen these structures, and know how they worked, but not what they were called in French. I will do a link on my post about one at Clos Roussely.
Who did the sketch above? It’s amusing.
Correction: Merci pour ce post. J’ai déjà vu ces édifices, et je connais leurs fonctions, mais pas comment elles s’appellent en français [but better: mais pas leur nom en français]. Je ferai un lien à mon post sur un édifice semblable [sur l’un d’eux sounds odd here] au Clos Roussely.
Qui a fait l’esquisse au dessus? Il est amusant.
The sketch was on the signpost indicating the jitte. I should indicate that, I guess! Thank you for the link.
Blog versus post. In English, the two are often confused but in French, blog is usually used for the website and post for each article.
Interesting — I would have said exactly the opposite re blog and post. In French I am hearing blog more and more when people mean post (and in fact, a post in Blogspot in French is un message). I rarely hear the two confused in English, but maybe that’s because almost all the anglos I know blog.
I think it’s mainly non-bloggers that confuse them!
Fascinating tidbit of wine making history.
[…] first thing we see is a “jitte de pressoir”, a sort of stack through which grapes were poured onto the wine presses below. Jean Michel […]