Whole-cluster pressing: juice without detour

The standard

Gentle must extraction requires that the juice be obtained at low pressure and with brief skin contact, so that little tannin and bitter matter passes over. Decisive are pressing pressure, pressing time and the avoidance of any prior crushing.

Criteria

• The grapes are pressed uncrushed and with their stems
• The pressing pressure stays low and is raised in stages
• The free-run must stays separable from the harder press fractions

Distinction

Whole-cluster pressing ≠ crushed-must pressing: there the berries are broken beforehand and the juice stays in longer contact with skins and seeds. Whole-cluster pressing ≠ whole-cluster fermentation: one obtains unfermented must, the other ferments the whole grape. Gentle must extraction thus separates the manner of juice extraction from fermentation.