What You Need to Know
In winemaking, pressing is the process where juice is extracted from the grapes with the aid of a wine-press, by hand, or even by the weight of the grape berries and clusters. Historically, intact grape clusters were trodden by feet but in most wineries today the grapes are sent through a crusher/destemmer, which removes the individual grape berries from the stems and breaks the skins, releasing some juice, prior to being pressed. There are exceptions, such as the case of sparkling wine production in regions such as Champagne where grapes are traditionally whole-cluster pressed with stems included to produce a lighter must that is low in phenolics.
Steps
- 1.
Champagne production (France): Whole-cluster pressing creates delicate base wines
- 2.
Orange wine (Georgia): Extended skin contact during pressing creates tannic, amber wines
- 3.
Ice wine (Germany/Canada): Pressing frozen grapes yields concentrated, sweet must