Saved by a kitty, the oldest champagne press will be able to resume service

He hadn't harvested since September 2022. His two cast iron gears had failed, without warning, on the very last day of the harvest. "It was the last grape marc, the press stopped suddenly," recalls Arnaud Baudette, a winemaker in Aÿ-Champagne. "But I had to repair it; I couldn't stop because of a breakdown."

After three long years of research and expertise, it's done: the ancestral Baudette press will be put back into service. The fundraising campaign, launched last July and still open until August 24 , has raised (almost) enough donations to restore it to its original state.

"I'm almost there. I turned it by hand a few days ago. I'm just finishing putting the parts back together to make the engine work. It's quite unique because it's the wheel on the wall that turns and drives the gears. Even old winemakers are impressed by this mechanism."

This is undoubtedly the oldest press still in operation in Champagne. And this treasure of winemaking heritage will once again receive its share of grapes. After missing two harvests, this unique piece dating from 1880 will be put back into operation in September of this year for the harvest, for which the official launch date is still awaited.

But Arnaud Baudette, representing the third generation of winemakers at the family estate, would like a final boost from the fundraising, which ends next Sunday. "It's already worked very well, with over €6,000 raised, but it would always be a bonus," the winemaker rejoices. "It reimburses me for the gear parts that had to be manufactured from a single block in a factory in Mulhouse."

In his misfortune, the Champagne winemaker was also able to count on another welcome boost, that of the Arts et Métiers school in Châlons-en-Champagne. The students created 3D plans of the parts to be remanufactured identically. The worm screw was also machined at reduced costs in a foundry in Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne). A mechanism of solidarity that is now helping to save a jewel of Champagne heritage.