Pressing

Pressing may refer to:

See also

Crushing (execution)

Death by crushing or pressing is a method of execution that has a history during which the techniques used varied greatly from place to place, generally involving the placement of intense weight upon a person with the intent to kill. This form of execution is no longer sanctioned by any governing body.

Crushing by elephant

A common method of death throughout South and South-East Asia for over 4,000 years was crushing by elephants. The Romans and Carthaginians used this method on occasion.

Roman mythology

In Roman mythology, Tarpeia was a Roman maiden who betrayed the city of Rome to the Sabines in exchange for what she thought would be a reward of jewelry. She was instead crushed to death and her body cast from the Tarpeian Rock which now bears her name. The method was also used extensively by the Nguyễn Dynasty in Vietnam to punish their enemies during the early 19th century.

Crushing in pre-Columbian America

Crushing is also reported from pre-Columbian America, notably in the Aztec empire.

Pressing (wine)

Pressing in winemaking is the process where juice is extracted from grapes. This can be done with the aid of a wine press, by hand, or even by the weight of the own grape berries and clusters.Historically, intact grape clusters were trodden by feet but in most wineries today the grapes are sent through a crusher/destemmer, which removes the individual grape berries from the stems and breaks the skins, releasing some juice, prior to being pressed. There are exceptions, such as the case of sparkling wine production in regions such as Champagne where grapes are traditionally whole-cluster pressed with stems included to produce a lighter must that is low in phenolics.

In white wine production, pressing usually takes place immediately after crushing and before primary fermentation. In red wine production, the grapes are also crushed but pressing usually doesn't take place till after or near the end of fermentation with the time of skin contact between the juice and grapes leaching color, tannins and other phenolics from the skin. Approximately 60-70% of the available juice within the grape berry, the free-run juice, can be released by the crushing process and doesn't require the use of the press. The remaining 30-40% that comes from pressing can have higher pH levels, lower titratable acidity, potentially higher volatile acidity and higher phenolics than the free-run juice depending on the amount of pressure and tearing of the skins and will produce more astringent, bitter wine.