Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/66137
WINEMAKING never before seen. The first commercial white wine in history to turn pink on re- tail shelves was a 1970 Gewürztraminer, followed by many thousands of Sauvignon Blancs, Chardonnays and, well, you name it. Pinking is a skin extractive that oc- curs only in the reductive conditions tank presses make possible. In 1950, vertical basket presses somehow stopped working. Unknown in traditional vinification, pink- ing is an endemic problem in modern wine- making that necessitates the universal addi- tion of GAF Corp.'s PVPP, a modified nylon powder, as a prophylactic. Since pinking is believed to be an intermediate form in an oxidative pathway, the vastly greater oxygen pickup built into basket press design avoids this problem by moving the offending com- pounds past pinking into a yellow form. Back to basics What changed just after World War II is that we started making presses out of steel. Simple as that. This had the advantage of durability and was considered more sani- tary. The steel bottom of the new presses also didn't leak. What escaped everyone's attention was that the bottom of a basket press is supposed to leak! Here's the revelation. The primary drain surface of a basket press is not the sides, but the bottom. In 1982, the first modern winemaker to see the light was Harold Osborn of Maison Deutz. He realized what had eluded every- one before him: that the juice channels are properly located below the pomace, not in the sides. When he built a 10-foot-diameter, 2-foot-high basket press for sparkling wine production, he placed drain channels right into the floor of his press. This design made it child's play to load and unload whole clusters for the low-tannin style he desired. The basket press achieves low solids in Hypac_Jan11.qxp 12/1/10 12:10 PM Page 1 the press fraction as a result of its static design, similar to the lauter tun in brew- ing, which has thin (0.7 to 1.1mm) slits to hold back the solids and allow liquids to pass through. The false bottom of a proper wine press provides an even, low- pressure drain surface that retains the pomace and the structure of the pomace cake filters particulates. Gentle pressing solutions for the highest quality wines Basket Presses Made in the USA and Australia Design innovations include: • Baskets from 8HL to 30HL • Four press frame sizes • Stainless steel baskets • Minimal maintenance • Easy to use and a joy to operate In brewing, the grain solids—not the false bottom—form a filtration medium that allows the otherwise cloudy mash to exit as a clear liquid. Because brewers made the transition from wood to steel without changing the false bottom, the static lauter tun has remained essentially unchanged for centuries. This realization allows existing basket presses to be easily fitted with a draining floor insert by any local stainless welder. JohnsonScreens.com provides a wide va- riety of screen designs. Brewing system manufacturers can easily shore up lauter tun false-bottom designs to accommodate wine press pressures. A false bottom allows basket presses of any size to be built. The huge and ancient rectangular basket press displayed for many years outside Domaine Chandon's tasting room measured two by four meters but was only 50cm tall, resulting in a press cake of 20cm—exactly like a modern tank press and, in its era of human power, much easier to load and unload by hand. Another modern invention that ruined SpecTrellising_July10.qxp 5/13/10 9:25 AM Page 1 the basket press for white wines—partic- ularly for Champagne production—was the crusher-destemmer. Basket presses work well when whole clusters are loaded North America Roanoke, Virginia +1 540 857 9871 wineryequipment@hypacusa.com www.hypacusa.com Australia Adelaide, South Australia +61 8 8333 0222 wineryequipment@hypac.com.au www.hypac.com.au Wines & Vines JULY 2011 57