Crushing and pressing: meaning and differences

News by GrifoMarchettiPosted November 14 | 5:16 PMTags: grape crusher, grapes, pressing
Crushing and pressing: meaning and differences

The crushing of the grapes was done with the feet with the intention of breaking the berries by letting out the juice.

For many it is a memory, the crushing of the grapes was done with the feet with the intention of breaking the berries by letting out the juice.  Then collected in tanks where the fermentation process began. Rite that even today you can attend some peasant festival dedicated to wine.

For hygienic reasons, the pressing nowadays takes place through special machines called crushers, Grifo Marchetti offers a vast catalogue of crushing and crushing machines.

If we consult the dictionary of the Italian language, among the synonyms of “crushing” we will surely find the word “pressing“. Both words refer to the act of putting a pressure on something, but enology are not considered synonyms. They refer to two distinct practices in the wine making process.

Let’s discover the differences together:

  • Crushing is the operation that takes place in the initial stages of winemaking. The grapes are placed in the appropriate crushers where under pressure they cause the peel of the berries to break and the juice to escape;
  • Pressing is the operation that takes place after crushing and is applied to the pressed, in particular on the marc, and subjected to further pressure to let out the residual must attached to the skins.

The color of wine is defined by the substances mainly present on the skins of berries, stems and pips, extracted essentially during maceration. Fermentation, for white wines, takes place without maceration of the solid parts but only with grape juice, whereas for red wines fermentation takes place with the solid parts of the grape berry.

At Grifo Marchetti you will find a selection of machines for processing grapes, such as the crusher, practical and functional to lighten the workload in a process as delicate as wine. In fact, Grifo Marchetti’s oenological machines in Piadena Drizzona want to follow producers and medium-small companies in their work. Find out more in our catalogue!