[Sca-cooks] grape stomping

[Stefan li Rous]

Giano replied to me with:

<< Am Sonntag, 14. Mai 2006 09:21 schrieb Stefan li Rous:

 > I know today that machinery is probably used almost everywhere to get
 > the juice from grapes for making wine. Was the juice actually
 > extracted from the grapes, in period or "traditionally" actually done
 > by filling vats with the grapes and then by people climbing into the
 > vats and stomping on the grapes?

AFAIK the extraction was a two-step process: First, the grapes were  
put into
the vat and stomped. In the process, they would be turned into a  
gooey pulp
rather than discrete units. The juice flowing out at this stage would  
not be
a large quantity, but made the choicest wine. In stage two, the pulp was
placed in a wine press and sueezed. That created much more juice, but  
of a
somewhat lower quality. Finally, the squeezed pulp would be watered,  
creating
the base for the lowest quality wine.>>

Ah, Thank you. There's more to getting the juice out than I expected.  
This reminds me very much of the descriptions of getting olive oil,  
with the various grades of the result.

However, with olive oil I see it labeled "extra-virgin", "virgin"  
etc. I've heard that only the top grades are worth exporting to the  
U.S., at least from Europe. However, I don't seem to remember wine  
being graded this way. Simply by area of production, type of grape  
and brand name. Do most wines end up being composed of all, or a  
single one of these grades of grape juice?

What about fresh grape juice? ie: Concord Grape Juice. Is is composed  
of all these grades? I never see any indication of this on the  
labels, either.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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