Wow! When you look at a device such as a wine press, you will realize and appreciate how far the home wine making industry has come. Wine press was the vehicle back in the day that was used to extract juice from grapes (Kind of like a juicer that we use today). Although they came in various styles, the main process was the same.
There were mainly four types of wine press machines (At least discovered so far).
1. Continuous wine press
2. Bladder wine press
3. Horizontal screw wine press
4. Basket wine press
1. Continuous wine press
Instead of using a ‘batch’ of grapes at a time, this wine press just literally annihilate as many grapes as you can throw at it. This was used to make cheap wine but the ‘big guys’ stayed away from it.
2. Bladder wine press
Has one large bladder in within it’s walls that crushes the grapes and collects the juice from it.
3. Horizontal screw wine press
Works pretty much the same as a bladder wine press but can handle a larger capacity of wine grapes.
4. Basket wine press
Basically you throw in batches of grapes in the ‘basket’ and than press down on it. The pressure crushes the grapes and helps extract grape juice from them.
Although wine press machines are obsolete - we should never forget them as they helped us get to where we are right now in the home wine making industry. Some people still use them just for fun.