🍷 Pressing (wine)
Squeezing juice from the berries or from the pulp after fermentation.
Pressing is squeezing juice out of berries or out of the crushed mass. A wine press is used for it. Pressing is one of the stages of winemaking.
The order depends on the wine. White wine is made from juice: the grapes are pressed at once and only juice goes into the tank. Red wine first ferments together with the skins to take colour and tannin, and is pressed after fermentation. Rosé is somewhere in between.
There are different presses. In a basket press a piston squeezes out the juice, in a pneumatic press an inflatable membrane inside a cylinder does. Modern membrane presses work gently: the pressure is low, and the juice does not pick up bitterness from skins and seeds.
The first juice, free run, is the cleanest and most valuable. Press wine can be fuller and more tannic. It is sometimes added to the main wine in small portions.
The principle of the press is familiar in dairy too: whey is squeezed out of cheese curd this way.
What it includes
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Pressing (wine) → kind of → 🍷 Winemaking → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Next step
- 🍷 Wine press
- Part of
- 🍷 Winemaking
- Wine and milk
- 🔄 Pressing
- In other topics
- ❄️ Cold pressing
Frequently asked questions
What is pressing in winemaking?
It is squeezing juice from berries or crushed grapes with a wine press.
When are white and red wines pressed?
White is pressed before fermentation, red after fermentation together with the skins.
What is free-run wine?
Juice that flows out of the berries on its own, without pressure. It is the cleanest.
Similar
🍷 Sorting table · 🍷 Must · 🍷 Acidification · 🍷 Deacidification · 🍷 Fortification · 🍷 Dealcoholisation