Late harvest wine in the sun to concentrate their sugar. Late harvest wine Late harvest wine is wine made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. "Late harvest" is usually an indication of a sweet dessert wine, such as late harvest Riesling. Late harvest grapes are often more similar to raisins, but have been naturally dehydrated while on the vine. Botrytis cinerea, or "noble rot", is a mold that causes grapes to lose nearly all of their water content. Wines made from botrytis-affected grapes are generally very sweet. Botrytis cinerea is a fungus that affects many wine grapes and causes them
History of the wine press Terentius Varro, Pliny the Elder and others described wooden wine presses that utilized large beams, capstans and windlasses to exert pressure on the pomace. The wines produced by these presses were usually darker, with more color extracted from the skins but could also be more harsh with bitter tannins also extracted. That style of wine press would eventually evolve into the basket press used in the Middle Ages by wine estates of the nobility and Catholic Church leading to the modern tank batch and continuous presses used in wineries today. The exact origins of winemaking (and, thus, of pressing grapes)