Wine · Terminology
Pressing
Squeezing juice or wine out of the grape solids — gently, and in fractions.
Pressing is the extraction of juice — or, in red winemaking, of wine — from the grape solids by applying pressure. The liquid that runs out under gravity before any pressure is applied is free-run; what comes out under the press is press wine, darker, more tannic and more astringent.
Timing separates the two great styles. Whites are pressed before fermentation, so the juice ferments clear and picks up little colour or tannin. Reds are pressed after fermentation, once maceration has taken what the winemaker wants from the skins.
In practice
- Pneumatic (bladder) presses are the modern standard: an inflating membrane presses fruit gently against a perforated drum.
- Basket presses — vertical, traditional — are still used in Champagne and for small, careful lots.
- Whole-cluster pressing puts uncrushed bunches straight in; the stems create drainage channels and the juice comes out cleaner.
- Press fractions are kept separate and blended back — or not — by taste.
Where you'll meet it
- Champagne's regulated yield: 2,550 litres from 4,000 kg of grapes, split into cuvée (the first, best 2,050 L) and taille.
- The white winemaking and sparkling wine guides.
- Rosé production, where press timing decides the colour.
Free-run versus press wine
| Free-run | Press wine | |
|---|---|---|
| Extraction | Gravity only | Increasing pressure |
| Tannin | Lower | Higher, coarser |
| Colour (red) | Deep but softer | Deeper, more astringent |
| pH / potassium | Lower | Higher |
| Use | The backbone of the blend | Blended back in small proportions, or sold off |
A little press wine can add grip and structure to a red that would otherwise be too soft. Too much makes it hard and bitter — one of the classic blending judgements.
Press design and gentleness
Gentle pressing means low pressure, short cycles, and few rotations. The finer the wine, the more the winemaker is prepared to leave behind: high-end Champagne discards the hardest press fractions entirely, and many white producers stop the press early rather than chase yield.
Related terms
- Crushing — the step before
- Maceration — what pressing ends, in reds
- Cuvée — the first press fraction in Champagne
- Blending — where press fractions are reunited