Sort of "GRAPES" but PRESSING

[Dutch]

I have been doing a bit of reaearch and have come accross something called "WHOLE CLUSTER PRESING". This is specifically for WHITE wine - as far as I can tell.
I do believe that we could use our cider hydraulic press to get moer than enough pressure and yet get superior juice without the crushing and de-stemming?
I am certainly willing to give this a try.
I will have to hop to it and get the press together as the last one is gone to auction but the wooden base I made last year as well as bucket and press disc is still on hand.

[Chris Alvey]

From what I remember back in the day, they did do whole intact cluster pressing of reds (pinot noir, specifically) after whole-cluster fermentation. Yes indeed you could grab a grape, pop it in your mouth, and it was partially wine and full of CO2.

I don't see why whole cluster fresh white pressing would be terribly bad either, but I don't think it's particularly recommended. You definitely would not want to apply a large amount of pressure as the tannins and nasties from both the seed and stems would affect the taste.

[Dutch]

From what I've read, the bad tastes come from the skins and stems primarily due to the crushing [and breaking of the stems] and not the pressing. The articles indicated that the BEST juice comes from careful direct cluster presing.
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"Whole cluster pressing" is just that: the pressing of the entire grape cluster or bunch to extract a gentle, clean flavored juice. Only the juice is extracted - no seeds, skins or other grapes solids remain after the pressing. Though it may seem somewhat counter intuitive, by directly pressing the whole grape clusters while the fruit is still on the stem, we actually get less stem taste and are able to draw out a smoother flavor for the wine. We whole cluster press all of our white grape varietals. In contrast, our red grapes are put through a destemmer, crushed with the grape solids and allowed to ferment on the skins (this actually gives red wine it s beautiful red color. ... more
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