![29-autunno,Taccuino Sanitatis, Casanatense 4182](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/29-autunno%2CTaccuino_Sanitatis%2C_Casanatense_4182..jpg)
The history of the wine press and of
pressing is nearly as old as the
history of wine
Wine has been produced for thousands of years, with evidence of ancient wine production in Georgia from BC (the earliest known traces of wine),
West Azerbaijan province of Iran from BC, Armenia from BC (large-scale production), and Sicil ...
itself with the remains of
wine presses providing some of the longest-serving evidence of organised
viticulture
Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...
and
winemaking
Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...
in the
ancient world
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
.
[J. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pp. 545–546 ]Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
2006 The earliest wine press was probably the human foot or hand, crushing and squeezing grapes into a bag or container where the contents would
ferment
Fermentation is a metabolism, metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic Substrate (chemistry), substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in ...
.
[H. Johnson ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'' pp. 14–31 Simon and Schuster 1989 ]
The pressure applied by these manual means was limited and these early wines were probably pale in colour and
body
Body may refer to:
In science
* Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space
* Body (biology), the physical material of an organism
* Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anima ...
, and eventually ancient winemakers sought out alternative means of pressing their wine. By at least the
18th dynasty, the
ancient Egyptians were employing a "sack press" made of cloth that was squeezed with the aid of a giant tourniquet.
The use of a wine press in winemaking is mentioned
frequently in the Bible but these presses were more elaboration of treading
lagars where grapes that were tread by feet with the juice running off into special basins.
The more modern idea of a piece of a winemaking equipment used to extract the juice from the skins probably emerged during the Greco-Roman periods from which written accounts by
Cato the Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato (; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor ( la, Censorius), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write histo ...
,
Marcus Terentius Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...
,
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
and others described wooden wine presses that utilized large beams,
capstans and
windlass
The windlass is an apparatus for moving heavy weights. Typically, a windlass consists of a horizontal cylinder (barrel), which is rotated by the turn of a crank or belt. A winch is affixed to one or both ends, and a cable or rope is wound arou ...
es to exert pressure on the
pomace
Pomace ( ), or marc (; from French ''marc'' ), is the solid remains of grapes, olives, or other fruit after pressing for juice or oil. It contains the skins, pulp, seeds, and stems of the fruit.
Grape pomace has traditionally been used to prod ...
.
[H. Johnson ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'' pp. 70, 124–125, 147, 202–214 Simon and Schuster 1989 ] The wines produced by these presses were usually darker, with more
color extracted from the skins but could also be more harsh with bitter
tannins
Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.
The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'', f ...
also extracted. That style of wine press would eventually evolve into the basket press used in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
by wine estates of the nobility and
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
leading to the modern tank batch and continuous presses used in wineries today.
[T. Pellechia ''Wine: The 8,000-Year-Old Story of the Wine Trade'' pg 28, 50-51 and 149 Running Press, London 2006 ]
Early history
![Ancient Egyptian wine press](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Ancient_Egyptian_wine_press.jpg)
The exact origins of winemaking (and, thus, of pressing grapes) are not known, but most archaeologists believe that it originated somewhere in the
Transcaucasia
The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
between the
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
and
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...
s in the land that now includes the modern countries of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
,
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
,
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. There are stories in the
Imeretin Valley (in what is now
Krasnodar Krai
Krasnodar Krai (russian: Краснода́рский край, r=Krasnodarsky kray, p=krəsnɐˈdarskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and administratively a part of t ...
, Russia) dating to between 7000 and 5000 BC of early winemaking using hollowed-out logs that they would fill with grapes, tread with their feet and then scoop the juice and crushed grape remains into jars to ferment. In the 17th century, French traveller Sir
Jean Chardin
Jean Chardin (16 November 1643 – 5 January 1713), born Jean-Baptiste Chardin, and also known as Sir John Chardin, was a French jeweller and traveller whose ten-volume book ''The Travels of Sir John Chardin'' is regarded as one of the finest ...
described a similar practice still in use thousands of years later in Georgia.
The earliest evidence of deliberate winemaking is from excavation at sites like
Areni-1 winery
The Areni-1 winery is an ancient winery that was discovered in 2007 in the Areni-1 cave complex in the village of Areni in the Vayots Dzor province of Armenia by a team of Armenian and Irish archaeologists. The excavations were carried out by B ...
in what is now the
Vayots Dzor Province
Vayots Dzor ( hy, Վայոց Ձոր, ) is a province (''marz'') of Armenia. It lies at the southeastern end of the country, bordering the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan to the west and the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan to the east. It cover ...
of Armenia. This site, dating back to around 4000 BC included a trough that measured about 3 by 3 1/2 feet and included a drain that went into a 2-foot-long vat that could contain about 14–15 gallons (52–57 liters) of wine. The
carbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
of these sites (and earlier sites at
Çatalhöyük
Çatalhöyük (; also ''Çatal Höyük'' and ''Çatal Hüyük''; from Turkish ''çatal'' "fork" + ''höyük'' "tumulus") is a tell of a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from appr ...
and
Neolithic B sites in
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
) are based on left over grape pips (seeds) and while they provide solid evidence of wine making, they do not necessarily provide evidence of how the wine was made and if the modern concept of pressing (i.e. extracting juice from the skins and separating it from the skins and seeds) was used.
![Winepress in Old City Jerusalem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Winepress_in_Old_City_Jerusalem.jpg)
Winemaking in ancient Egypt probably used people's feet for crushing and pressing the grapes, but tomb paintings excavated at
Thebes showed that the ancient Egyptians developed some innovations to their wine presses-such as the use of long bars hanging over the treading basins and straps that the workers could hold onto while treading.
Hieroglyph
A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...
and paintings also showed the Egyptians by at least by the 18th Dynasty (c. 1550 – c. 1292 BC) were also using a type of cloth "sack press" in which grapes or skins left over from treading would be twisted and squeezed by a tourniquet to release the juice.
A modified version of this sack press had the sack hung between two large poles with workers holding each pole. After the grapes were loaded into the sack, the workers would walk in opposite directions, squeezing the grapes in the bag and capturing the juice in a vat underneath the bag.
This early wine press not only had the benefit of exerting more pressure on the skins and extracting more juice than treading but the cloth also acted an early form of
filtering the wine.
Ancient Greece and Rome
![Marcus Porcius Cato](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Marcus_Porcius_Cato.jpeg)
One of the earliest known Greek wine presses was discovered in
Palekastro
Palaikastro or Palekastro ( el, Παλαίκαστρο, officially el, Παλαίκαστρον), with the Godart and Olivier
Cretan hieroglyphs are a hieroglyphic writing system used in early Bronze Age Crete, during the Minoan era. They ...
in Crete and dated to the
Mycenaean period
Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...
(1600–1100 BC). Like most of the earlier presses, it was mainly a stone basin for treading the grapes by feet with a run-off drain for the juice to flow. However, there is evidence that some of the later Cretan winemakers would sometimes use a pressing method similar to how
olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...
was extracted from olives. This press would entail laying the grapes out underneath several planks of wood and then weighing the planks down with rocks to press the juice out from the grapes. The wine made from these rudimentary pressing wasn't held in high esteem by the Greeks, often tainted with impurities and having a short shelf life. Much more prized was the wine produced from "free run" juice that was released by the grapes under their own weight before any treading or pressing. This wine was believed to be the most pure and was often used for
medicinal purposes
''Medicinal Purposes'' is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''.
Plot
Edinburgh, 1827. Body snatchers William Burke and William Hare are on the loose while the ...
.
[R. Phillips ''A Short History of Wine'' p. 38 Harper Collins 2000 ]
In the 2nd century BC, Cato the Elder wrote a vivid and detailed account of the workings of
early Roman wine presses and how to build a press room in his work ''
De Agri Cultura''. The press Cato describes was known as a lever or beam press which was built on an elevated platform that contained and shallow basin that would slope and narrow to a run off point where the freed juice would exit. The press would consist of a large horizontal beam held up by two upright fixtures in the front and one upright fixture in the front. The grapes were placed under the beam with pressure was applied by a windlass that was affixed by rope to the front of the beam and a user winding down that end.
Rope would also be used wound around the "cake" of the pressed grape skins to help keep it in place.
In the 1st century AD, Roman statesman Pliny the Elder described a "Greek style" press in his work ''
Natural History'' that saw the windlass replaced by a vertical screw that often included a counterweight to increase pressure. Marcus Terentius Varro,
Columella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (; Arabic: , 4 – ) was a prominent writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire.
His ' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the wo ...
and
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
would also include descriptions of the workings of wine presses in their agricultural treatises. Yet despite their frequent mentions in ancient writings and archaeological evidence showing the presence of wine presses throughout the
Roman empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
, their use was actually relatively rare. This was because having a wine press was a very expensive and large piece of equipment that most Roman farmers, outside the estate holding
patrician
Patrician may refer to:
* Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage
* Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...
s and the most wealthy
plebeians
In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
Etymology
The precise origins of ...
, could not afford. Instead, it was much more common for Roman estates to have large tanks or troughs where grapes were tread upon by feet or paddles.
![Grapes 02 pushkin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Grapes_02_pushkin.jpg)
Varro also described in his work ''De re rustica'' a type of "pressed wine" known as ''lorca'' that was produced by the left over grape skins being soaked in water that was served to slaves and farm workers.
[Marcus Terentius Varro ']
De re rustica
'' (I. 54) published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1934. LacusCurtius, University of Chicago. Accessed: May 11, 2012
By the 2nd century AD, the Romans began using a "screw press" that would be the predecessor to the basket press that would become popular in the Middle Ages. This press would include a large beam with a hole cut out of the middle through which a screw was fitted through. Attached the base of the beam was a cut piece of stone that fit the circumference of a vat that was lined with porous
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
or cloth. Ropes and pulleys attached to the beam would raise the beam and stone above the vat that would be loaded with grapes. Then six to eight workers (usually slaves) would be divided on either side of the screw. The workers would walk clockwise, turning the screw as it the stone descended upon the grapes, providing added pressure with each turn. A hole or spout at the bottom of the vat would allow the juice to drain out where it was usually moved by bucket into
amphorae
An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...
or other large fermentation vessels. A replica of this style of Roman screw press still exists at a winery in
Beaucaire, Gard
Beaucaire (; Occitan and Provençal: ''Bèucaire'' ) is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. In 2018, it had a population of 15,718. Its inhabitants are known as ''Beaucairois'' or ''Beaucairoises'' in ...
, in the
Languedoc wine
Languedoc-Roussillon wine, including the ''vin de pays'' labeled ''Vin de Pays d'Oc'', is produced in southern France. While "Languedoc" can refer to a specific historic region of France and Northern Catalonia, usage since the 20th century (espe ...
region of France.
Middle ages and the increasing popularity of the basket press
![Ancient wine press](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Ancient_wine_press.jpg)
In the Middle Ages, most winemaking technology advances were made by
religious orders
A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practi ...
(particularly in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
) who owned vast amounts of vineyard land and produced large quantities of wines in their abbeys and
bishoprics
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...
. It was here that the basket press became popular. The press included a large cylindrical basket made of wood staves bound together by wood or metal rings with a heavy horizontal disc fitted at the top. After the grapes were loaded into the basket, the disc would depress towards the bottom with juice seeping out between the staves into a waiting basin or tray. In some presses, added pressure would come from a giant lever or manual hand crank.
While the basket press was becoming more widely used by Church-owned estates in France and Germany, winemaking in the
Iberian peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
and by small local farmers throughout Europe was still mostly down by treading in stone lagers. However, there are many church records that showed
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
land tenants were willing to pay a portion of their crop to use a landlord's wine press if it was available. This was probably due in part to the added volume of wine (anywhere from 15 to 20%) that pressing could produce versus treading. But safety could have also been a driving force since many parish records from the period reported wine cellar workers suffocating to death (from the released
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
) while treading fermenting wine grapes in a vat.
Press fractions
![Wine press from 16th century](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Wine_press_from_16th_century.jpg)
As the use of the basket press became more popular, wineries and wine writers started to make a distinction between the quality of wine that came from different levels of pressing. The highest quality was the ''vin de goutte'' or the "free run" juice that was released by the mere weight of the grapes squeezing each other as they were loaded into the press. This was usually the lightest in colour and body and was often kept separate from the ''vin de presse'' that came from pressing which was darker and had more tannins. In 1600, French wine writer
Olivier de Serres
Olivier de Serres (; 1539–1619) was a French author and soil scientist whose '' Théâtre d'Agriculture'' (1600) was the accepted textbook of French agriculture in the 17th century.
Biography
Serres was born in 1539 at Villeneuve-de-Berg, A ...
noted in his work ''Théâtre d'Agriculture'' that it was a tradition associated only with the
wines of Anjou in the
Loire Valley to blend in the ''vin de goutte'' with the ''vin de presse''. Much like the ancient Roman pressed wine ''lorca'', Middle Age peasants often drank
piquette
Piquette is a French wine term which commonly refers to a vinous beverage produced by adding water to grape pomace but sometimes refers to a very simple wine or a wine substitute.
From pomace
If water is added to the pomace remaining after grap ...
from the left over grape skins after pressing.
Nowhere was the analysis of the difference in press fractions more astute than in the
Champagne wine region
The List of wine-producing regions, wine region within the Champagne (province), historical province of Champagne in the northeast of France is best known for the production of champagne, the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name. EU ...
where
Dom Pérignon
Dom Pérignon (; ) is a brand of vintage Champagne. It is named after Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk who was an important quality pioneer for Champagne wine but who, contrary to popular myths, did not discover the Champagne method for making ...
was recorded in 1718 by biographer
Canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western can ...
Godinot to have laid out these specifications for how the press fractions of juice destined to be
Champagne
Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...
should be handled. First the pressing were to happen quickly, as soon after
harvest
Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...
as possible to keep the juice at its freshest and to avoid any coloring from the red wine grapes of
Pinot noir
Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...
and
Pinot Meunier. The free run ''vin de goutte'' was considered too delicate and lacking on its own to make fine Champagne and it was sometimes discarded or used for other wines. The first and second pressings (called ''tailles'' or cut since the pomace cake was literally cut with ropes, chains or paddles to remove it between pressings) were the most ideal for
sparkling wine production
Sparkling wine production is the method of winemaking used to produce sparkling wine. The oldest known production of sparkling wine took place in 1531 with the ''ancestral method''.
Pressure and terminology
In popular parlance and also in the ...
. The juice of the third pressing was considered acceptable but the fourth pressing (called the ''vin de taille'') was rarely used and all other pressings after that (the ''vins de pressoirs'' were considered too harsh and colored to be of any value in Champagne production.
Changing styles
![Fotothek df tg 0002622 Architektur ^ Wein ^ Presse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Fotothek_df_tg_0002622_Architektur_%5E_Wein_%5E_Presse.jpg)
In the 17th and 18th century,
the style of winemaking in France was for heartier wines that
could age and survive long transport voyages overseas. Winemaking texts such as the 1803 annotated and updated edition of de Serres' ''Théâtre d'Agriculture'' began recommending that all fine producers employ the use of a wine press and that sometimes blending in a bit of the ''vin de presse'' to enhance color and body was essential to create a wine that could last. Even in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
, which was still using lagars long after
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
, Champagne and other French wine regions had adopted the basket press, saw the use of a wine press become more popular after darker, more
full bodied wines of
Ho-Bryan produced by Lord Arnaud III de Pontac began to receive wide acclaim from English writers such as
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
,
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...
and
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...
. By the end of the 18th century, nearly all prestigious Bordeaux wine estates were following de Pontac's method of giving the grapes more time to ferment in the vat and then using a basket press on the darker ''vin vermeilh'' and pressing it into
new oak barrels.
![Pressoir Marmonier au Château Turcan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Pressoir_Marmonier_au_Ch%C3%A2teau_Turcan.JPG)
The advancement of
steam power
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
machinery in the 19th century brought about a revolution in wine press technology as manual basket press gave way to steam-powered presses that greatly increased the efficiency of pressing and reduced the amount of labor needed to operate a press. Even the advancement of
rail transport
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
had a positive influence as the cost of transporting large wine presses from manufacturers to wine regions throughout the globe decreased and more wineries were able to afford to purchase a wine press.
Modern presses
![Wine press in Bordeaux](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Wine_press_in_Bordeaux.jpg)
With relatively modest changes, the basket press has continued to be widely used for centuries since its introduction by both small
artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
winemakers to large
Champagne
Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...
houses. In Europe, basket presses with
hydraulic machinery
Hydraulic machines use liquid fluid power to perform work. Heavy construction vehicles are a common example. In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is pumped to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders throughout the machine and b ...
can be found throughout
Sauternes,
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
and parts of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.
In the 20th century, wine presses advanced from the vertical style pressing of the basket press and ancient wine press to horizontal pressing with pressure either being applied at one or both ends or from the side through the use of an airbag or bladder. These new presses were categorized as "batch", which like the basket press had to have the pomace emptied and grapes reloaded, and as "continuous" where a belt or
Archimedes' screw
The Archimedes screw, also known as the Archimedean screw, hydrodynamic screw, water screw or Egyptian screw, is one of the earliest hydraulic machines. Using Archimedes screws as water pumps (Archimedes screw pump (ASP) or screw pump) dates back ...
would subject the grapes/pomace to increasing pressure from one end of the press to the other with new grapes being added and the pomace being continuously removed.
![Wine presses at winery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Wine_presses_at_winery.jpg)
Another advancement in the horizontal batch press was the complete enclosure of the press (sometimes called "tank press") that reduced the exposure of the grape must to air. Some advance presses can even be flushed with
nitrogen
Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
to create a complete
anaerobic
Anaerobic means "living, active, occurring, or existing in the absence of free oxygen", as opposed to aerobic which means "living, active, or occurring only in the presence of oxygen." Anaerobic may also refer to:
* Anaerobic adhesive, a bonding a ...
environment that can be desired for wine making with white wine grapes. Additionally, many of today's modern presses are computerized which allows the operator to control exactly how much pressure is being applied to the grape skins and for how many cycles.
References
{{Winemaking, state=uncollapsed
Oenology