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Joanie

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Why do you need a grape crusher if you have a press. Doesn't the press crush them?
 
A crusher will get you what is called "free run" juice. This is juice initially created as the grapes are crushed.


As you start using a press, you are now also pressing the skins and seeds and depending on whether these are white or red grapes, may or may not be a good thing (tannins).


A lot of commercial winemakers may take the free run juice and ferment it seperately from the pressed juice and then blend later.
 
From what I know and that is limited, most wineries ferment there reds on the skins and then press them after. Whites are not fermented on the skins as you dont want all those tannins like Bovine said.
 
Joan, Wades got it right.

Reds are just crushed, fermented on the skins, THEN pressed. The juice they take out of fermentation is called free run. This is nice mild wine. The skins are pressed and this wine can be a little harsher than free run wines. Many are blended after.

White wines on the other hand are typically gently pressed to get free run juice. Usually they use a bladder press which is easier on the grapes and doesn't break as many seeds which will impart harsh tannins. If the grape varietal is thick skinned for a white, sometimes they will put the clusters through a crusher before going to press. Usually now though, whole cluster pressing is done on whites.
 
Another thing the crusher is good for is most of them are destemmer/crusher combinations. This removes the stems which you don't want going into the must of reds or even the pressing of whites. Also the crusher tends to just lightly break the berry. Think of a grape as a soft egg. While intact they are more difficult to break so it takes a lot more crushing power and hence more tannins. Once you run them through the crusher, the skin is gently broken like an egg shell and they crush much easier. If you don't press real hard and take a close look you can actually find some whole grapes that didn't get crushed. The crushed ones are pretty much just skins. If you press whole white grapes without crushing, it takes a whole lot more force to get the juice out.
 

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