About The Bay: Stomping The Grape Harvest In Sonoma
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- It's harvest time in wine country and for some, that still means getting their stomp on.I took off my shoes and gave it a try during travels About The Bay.
Perhaps all you know about grape stomping is what you learned from watching 'I Love Lucy', but actually there's a long and distinguished history.
"I went on a trip to Egypt and they had some statuary and they had the little pictographs on their side and apparently that was how they flattened their grapes even then," said Jane Engdal, coordinator of the Sonoma County Harvest Fair World Championship Grape Stomp.
I was able to enter the competition with no good reason, but few others seemed to have one either.
One competitor, who only gave her first name, Jen, said she had just moved to the Bay Area from Texas and figured this is what you do in California.
Stomping The Grape Harvest In Sonoma
"Stomper is not exactly a high IQ occupation, but you know, you are required to one basic thing and that's not to fall over,"Engdal said.
I bared my feet and stomped away, although I think I might have gotten a cut on my foot, Engdal told me the juice would likely sterilize his wound, so what about the grape juice juice, then?
"We're not using the juice," Engdal quipped.
I ended up in a respectable third place in the competition with my partner, Denise. For the next few days I'll have traces of purple feet and you can probablhy smell me coming.
