The presses are used to produce wine or olive oil and, sometimes, their traces, make it difficult or impossible to determine the use for which they were intended. In the specific case of the press of Cortegaça, there is no doubt that it was intended for wine production, due to the presence of the stepping tank.

As already mentioned, these structures are mostly or even entirely made of wood, leaving only the traces in stone, as is the case of the Cortegaça mill, carved in a granite outcrop. When analyzing the indentations in the boulder, it was clearly perceived the existence of the treading tank, with its inclination that allows the liquid to be conveyed to a smaller collection tank (lacus), through a spout. More complex is the interpretation of the arrangement of the five circular pole holes that either served to anchor a roof structure, or to anchor the press itself, or even both. As for the rectangular notches, lateral to the tread tank, narrower at the ends, quite possibly for the placement of wedges, they suggest, without great doubts, the placement of strong vertical wooden beams.