I am a winemaker in Meursault | Karoline Knoth

In July 1946, the ethnologist André Lagrange interviewed a witness for 12 days in Meursault, described as "someone who has 6 centuries of winemaker in his blood" - making Meursault one of the best-documented villages on the Côte.

Today's readers can find him not only in the numerous index cards and notes in the book "Moi, je suis vigneron" by Lagrange, but also in a photo on the first page. The Meursault winemaker Prosper Tavernier, portrays the old "Toine" in Lagrange's work. He introduces us to Meursault's viticulture from the 19th century to the 1950s.

The index cards are kept at the Municipal Archives of Beaune and have attracted the curiosity of Karoline Knoth, a graduate in European history and ethnology. For the first time, the Lagrange collection was evaluated at the level of a specific village. This is also the first study to take into account the rich photographic collection established during the investigation of winemaking in Burgundy, which is now housed at the Mucem (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations) in Marseille.

Lagrange's work has been extended - in spirit - through interviews with winemakers who still remember that era, sometimes through the stories of their elders, and sometimes through their own experiences at the beginning of their careers.

Born in 1873, a landowner in the "Crus" of Meursault, Prosper Tavernier fought for modern winemaking. His youth was deeply marked by the upheavals of the phylloxera period. In early 1911, shocked by a zero harvest caused by downy mildew, he founded a winemaking syndicate in Meursault. "We can never make enough progress" - he closely followed the industry's developments: mechanization, economic and environmental issues caused by anti-cryptogamic treatments, new grape varieties, the need for winemaker training - nothing escaped his attention and reflection.

Through the index cards and photographs, it is possible to discover a forgotten era in the history of Meursault and winemaking on the Côte - different yet sometimes similar to today. At the same time, the reader accompanies the ethnologist in his "clearing" work - which may inspire new investigations based on this extraordinarily valuable documentary collection.