Basketpresses: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

I was surprised to read (I'm a little behind) my July, 2011 issue of Wines & Vines, Clark Smith's column about Pressing Matters: A Postmodern Tale. Smith, the founder of Vinovation and high technology processes defines postmodern as the time after World War II and calls this period as having the most changes in winemaking in the past 6 millenia. (I get that! See Celebrating Hajji Firuz Tepe---Evidence of Neolithic Wine!)
It was interesting for me to read the following: "Often we are so quick to throw technology at a problem that we lose track of the benefits of the old ways and inadvertently fail to keep our options open." Citing our reliance on fossil fuels as unsustainable, Smith mentions that we already had a solution in place that converted cellulose to motion and created fertilizer as a byproduct---Smith said, "it was called a horse." (I love that kind of humor!) As we buy into his retrospection, he next proposed that we threw out the basketpress with the bathwater in 1950 and then took it up again 2000. I saw that at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium where vendors were tauting their stainless steel vertical basket presses as the best thing since, well, since the basket press.
Chew on the following sentence for a while: Today's problems are actually the solutions we found to the problems we had yesterday.
Michael Silacci of Opus One gave the following as reasons why they use a basket press for their red wine:

•      Gives great aeration when reds are at their most reductive
•      Puts you in much closer contact with the wine you're making
•      Continuous static pressure produces press wine more consistently high in quality and with a low solids content that makes it easier to taste what you've got
•      Cleaner and simpler to operate and unload
•      Gives a nice, neat press cake you can forklift rather than an augered mess

The advantages of using a basket press for white wines include:

•      Whole cluster pressing where the rachis provides channels for the juice to exit. In destemmed musts, the sliminess of the pectin blocks the flow of juice unless rice hulls or stems are used
•      Importance of the press as a juice aeration device for providing oxygen leading to a healthy fermentation

Smith also attributes the reductive conditions in the tank press as leading to the occasional pinking found in white wines such as Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.
Read the entire article here: Pressing Matters: A Postmodern Tale.