– Press Types:
– Basket press:
– Large basket filled with crushed grapes
– Pressure applied through plate forced down onto fruit
– Mechanism to lower plate: screw or hydraulic device
– Juice flows through openings in the basket
– Basic design unchanged for nearly 1000 years
– Horizontal screw press:
– Works like basket press
– Plates from sides of closed cylinder squeeze grapes
– Handles significantly greater volume of grapes
– Bladder press:
– Large cylinder closed at each end
– Fruit loaded into cylinder
– Large bladder expands to push grapes against sides
– Juice flows out through small openings
– Cylinder rotates to homogenize pressure
– Continuous screw press:
– Uses Archimedes screw
– Continuously forces grapes against device wall
– Juice extracted continuously
– Pomace extracted at end
– Rarely used for table wines in some countries
– Flash release technique:
– Involves heating grapes with steam
– Submitting them to strong vacuum
– Allows better extraction of phenolic compounds
– Gallery:
– Ancient winepress in Israel
– Bladder press
– Old style press in Romania
– Winepress workings in 1700s Germany
– Remains of medieval winepress in Rioja Alavesa
– See Also:
– History of the winepress
– Grape stomping
– References:
– Wikimedia Commons related to Wine presses
– Professional Friends of Wine website – Wine 101
– Archaeologists Unearth the World’s Oldest Wine Press
– Understanding Wine Technology: The Science of Wine Explained by David Bird
– Winery Technology & Operations: A Handbook for Small Wineries by Yair Margalit
A winepress is a device used to extract juice from crushed grapes during winemaking. There are a number of different styles of presses that are used by wine makers but their overall functionality is the same. Each style of press exerts controlled pressure in order to free the juice from the fruit (most often grapes). The pressure must be controlled, especially with grapes, in order to avoid crushing the seeds and releasing a great deal of undesirable tannins into the wine. Wine was being made at least as long ago as 4000 BC; in 2011, a winepress was unearthed in Armenia with red wine dated 6,000 years old.
