Old Wine press – P & P Cellars

I love this picture (by good friend Joe Bauer) and this old wine press that sits in front of our winery. It was never used at our winery, but it still makes me wonder about the people that did use it. My brothers and I have spent lots of hours working with presses like this. The first couple of loads were kind of fun. After that, it was work – Hard work. These are referred to as basket presses, due to the shape the wooden staves form. After the grapes, or more accurately, the “must” is pressed, the pins holding the basket together are removed to split the basket in half for unloading the “cake”. The cake is what remains after the wine is pressed out. It’s a surprisingly dry combination of skins and seeds. As far as the consistency goes, the best comparison I can think of is a bag of compressed peat moss. It will stand by itself after cutting away the plastic. But hit it with a pitch fork or shovel and it breaks up fairly easily. At max capacity, this press could hold the must from about one ton of grapes. But there were times that a smaller load would need to be pressed - Maybe a small batch or the final load of a larger batch. For most presses, this required a variation from the standard practice. If it was a small amount for the final load, the cake from the previous load could be left in the press to take up the extra space. If not, it might require several additional layers of alternately stacked wood spacers to make up the difference.

But this press had a unique feature that I have not seen on any other press (That’s not to say they’re not out there, I just haven’t seen them). This press had an upper basket and a lower basket. If you look at the picture above, you can see the handles on each section. Both sections would be used together most of the time. But if need be, either section could be used alone for smaller loads. Adding further to its flexibility, is the fact that the upper basket comprises about one third of the combined total, and the lower basket about two thirds of the combined total. So, depending on load size, the press could be used at one third, two thirds or all of its capacity. Simple, but ingenious at the same time.

If you find yourself passing by on the Silverado Trail, stop in and check it out.

This part of the press is called the platen. I know, I looked it up on the internet. Amazing tool, the internet. Using different wine presses over the years, I never knew what those parts were called. After the must is transferred to the basket, the platen is placed over the must and pressed downward forcing the juice out the spaces between the staves of the basket. The platen above is hanging on the wall in our cellar. It has a bit of family history to it. My dad was managing several vineyards in the mid sixties. During that time, Bob Pepi Sr. bought the vineyards that now are part of Cardinal winery in Oakville, and my dad took over developing and managing the vineyards. They became pretty good friends and started making wine together in what had been an old dairy barn. They even made a small wine cellar in the back corner of the barn. When they poured the concrete, someone scratched “P & P Cellars” in the wet concrete. Bob Pepi Sr. acquired a wine press from the cellar of an old Italian in San Francisco. We used that press for many years, but eventually decided/needed to replace the old platen with new wood. But, we kept the old platen and eventually mounted it on the wall. Yes, it’s a bit rough and at some point in it’s past, someone nailed what appears to be galvanized sheet metal on the surface to hold it together. I’m sure that Anna, our winemaker, shudders at the thought of wine actually coming into contact with any part of it. I don’t think she even likes it in “her” cellar, but its part of our history, and Anna has learned she needs to choose her battles with the brothers.

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After viewing the original post, Joe Bauer sent the following pictures:

Even though this is a very small press, this is an excellent picture

of the basket (1/2 removed), the platen and the cake.

Lori (Sis) removing the platen and breaking up the cake.

Well why did you think they call it a cake? (Yes, it was her BD)

Foot note: I never had a sister, so I "adopted" Lori to fill that void 5 years ago