Old wine press

Hey guys, 

My grandmother passed away a week or so ago and this weekend we were cleaning out her basement. This old wine press was in the basement. My father said he was going to take it home. Then later in the day my 18 year old son was excited about it and said he wanted to make wine with it. Wouldn't you know we went home with it. Now I'm wondering if I should restore it, or just clean it up and leave  it as is. I'm not even sure if it's home built or something that could be purchased. My father whose 69 remembers it was his grandfathers, so I'm guessing it's pretty old. What do you guys think? 

I'd clean it up and use a food grade oil like the stuff for cutting boards on everything except the actual crush area.  If the metals not rusty just clean it good. That way is still usable to make wine. I think oiling the wood in the crusher could leach oil into the wine and not be great. 
 

Remember, it's only original once. 

The lack of staining on the wood makes me think it was rarely used, if ever. If you have thoughts of actually pressing fruit with it, clean it very thoroughly, including washing it down with alcohol (Everclear works fine). Personally, I'd suggest keeping it for display and leaving it at that, unless you're very committed to the complicated process of making wine.

I'd power wash it and call it good.  DO NOT OIL THE WOOD.  The press is used after the grapes have turned into wine- and oil and alcohol mix.

If you've made wine before, you can use the same mixture to spray on it and kill all of the stuff on it.

Keep it damp with water, as that should be white oak.

Yeah, making wine from actual crushed fruit is not an easy process. 

Having been around apple trees some, it could be an apple press...

Sorry for the loss of your grandmother.  Did your dad help her make wine with it?  I think if you give it a good cleaning, probably with some hot water first and then I agree on the suggestion to rinse it with some wine to help finish the process.  

Putting the fruit in cheesecloth will help to filter the skins or any seeds from the grapes.  It would likely work to squeeze apples for cider too.  

I would use it for whatever you want.  It's unfortunately I don't believe it's an unmolested piece.  I can see flaking paint on it, yes?  Presses (cider, wine, olive, etc) wouldn't have originally had paint on them.  My other concern is if the paint that is on it has lead.

I see you're from MA.  Is that where the rest of the family is from and where we think the press is from?  The reason I ask is that the basket looks like it's from a cider press with the wider gaps.  wine press baskets look more like a straight-sided barrel with nearly no gap between them.  More like this:

Cider presses use baskets that have wider gaps in the slats.  Like this:

If you use a cider basket for grapes, it will work, but it will squirt a lot of pulp through, which is fine, and easily filtered on the way to the canteen, but it makes me wonder about its original description.

Montgomery Ward used to sell both wine and cider presses under the same part number.  The only difference was which basket they included.  If you asked for a wine press, you got a tighter basket.  In certain areas, they didn't stock the wine baskets because there was little demand for it, or not a lot of fruits used for wine were grown in a certain region.  In other areas (like maybe Nevada or Arizona) they didn't stock the cider baskets because apples were so far away that they were cost prohibitive.  Not to mention, before modern transportation/pasteurization, I'm sure most people in Arizona didn't even know that apple cider existed.  Even when I lived in Los Angeles a decade ago, apple cider wasn't something you found on the shelves except in October.  It was like egg nog... only sold during a special season.

It really matters zero hills of beans, I'm just curious since I saw Maffachuffetts and the wider-slatted basket if it originated as a cider press, and your ancestors used it for wine.  Doesn't matter a bit, I just love antiques and imagining their history.  You just took me down memory lane.  We used to make apple cider when I was a kid.  We had an antique press with the hopper/chopper on it.  Dad would get out the old John Deere H, slap an old leather drive belt to the clutch drum and we would spend a day making cider.  I remember drinking it straight out of the tray.

I don't have any pictures of our old press, but I remember it was a Superior brand, so I googled.  I think ours was like this.

I keep saying "was."  I know exactly where it is in the garage.

Oh man, we actually had one of these in our pulp and paper lab at work, for dewatering pulp. Put it in a muslin bag and press as much as you could. Had a "cider/wine press" SOP and everything. UMaine sad one too as I recall. Ended up getting the shop guys to build one with a bit better design but same idea.

I think it was this one from harbor freight

I have a friend who inherited something like this from a deceased grandparent. He immediately put it to good use making great wine. He buys California grapes in Providence, RI, in late September. Presses immediately. Ferments in several six gallon carboys for a few weeks (usually without explosion), filters, then bottles, and in a couple years has spectacular vino. I know, I've tasted. If you like wine, use it. If not, give it to someone who will appreciate it's usefulness, history, and tradition. Please don't turn it into a planter or other type of ornamental object. It should be used as originally intended. 

(BTW, if you're in Massachusetts, you could purchase local grapes from MA, CT, RI, or the North Fork on Long Island for crushing. Or come to Providence in September to purchase CA grapes).

The old bottle capper in the background suggests cider press

In reply to Gary :

FWIW, we can buy CA grapes here in MI- so I suspect that there are a number of sources around the country that imports grapes from CA when harvest happens.

daeman said:

The old bottle capper in the background suggests cider press

I was told it is a cork press, but I don't know. I'm thinking this stuff is best left as decoration as I don't have a clue as to how to make wine, and my ambitious 18 year old son doesn't either. I don't like to drink wine either.

In reply to Mazdax605 :

If you liked wine, it's not hard to make it- with less steps, I think it's easier than beer.

But it helps if you like it.

Could always distill it into brandy.....

That is a really cool find!

I missed the "wine press" days, but I did help my late Uncle Bruno and my dad make wine a few times over the years. When my grandmother was around, she had a press, but later on when she couldn't do it anymore, my dad and uncle decided that was way too much work so they cut that step out of the equation. I used to go into the North End of Boston to get the grape juice and we would get it into the giant fermenting jugs in my uncle's basement. IIRC, we did this toward the end of the summer so it would be ready for the holidays. I'm more of a beer guy, but the best wine I've ever had was Big'a Dummy Vino from my Uncle Bruno's basement.



I've been thinking about trying my hand at winemaking myself. It really isn't that hard with the pre-crushed grape juice, and a lot easier than beer brewing. If you are going to try your hand at the full experience, good luck! At the very least, that press would look great as a conversation piece in the house.