ESPRESSO (Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) is a VLT ultra-stable high-resolution spectrograph that will be installed in Paranal Observatory in Chile at the end of 2017 and offered to the community by 2018. The spectrograph will be located at the Combined Coudé Laboratory of the VLT and will be able to operate with one or (simultaneously) several of the four 8.2 m Unit Telescopes (UT) through four optical Coudé trains. Combining efficiency and extreme spectroscopic precision, ESPRESSO is expected to gaining about two magnitudes with respect to its predecessor HARPS. We aim at improving the instrumental radial velocity precision to reach the 10 cm s-1 level, thus opening the possibility to explore new frontiers in the search for Earth-mass exoplanets in the habitable zone of quiet, nearby G to M dwarfs. ESPRESSO will be certainly an important development step toward high-precision ultra-stable spectrographs on the next generation of giant telescopes such as the E-ELT.