When winemakers are getting ready to buy a commercial press, figuring out what size press to buy can be really confusing. How many one-ton bins of fresh white grapes will fit inside a 12 hectoliter press? What about destemmed grapes? There are some practical and historical reasons for the confusing nomenclatures around sizing, and we’ll attempt to explain some of them, as well as strategies for thinking about sizing your press. The “Ton” In the US we typically talk about wine grapes in terms of “tons”. We’re putting “tons” in quotation marks because it’s not a ton in the truest sense. A real ton is a measure of weight. It’s 2000 pounds. However, when we talk about a “ton of grapes”, it’s more likely that we’re referring to its volume—how much space it takes up. That’s because wine grapes are often sold, harvested, and processed in macro bins that are casually referred to as “half-ton&