{"id":27664,"date":"2014-10-02T15:05:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T07:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=27664"},"modified":"2014-10-02T11:11:08","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T03:11:08","slug":"winemakers-want-you-to-know-grape-stomps-are-for-fun-not-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/02\/winemakers-want-you-to-know-grape-stomps-are-for-fun-not-wine\/","title":{"rendered":"Winemakers want you to know grape stomps are for fun, not wine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Willamette<\/a>
Willamette Valley Vineyards near Turner, Oregon. Aboutmovies \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TURNER, Ore.\u2014There is one thing that the people at Willamette Valley Vineyards want you to know about their annual grape stomp. It is a very important point, one they make several times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not use the grapes that people stomp in our wines,\u201d said Wende Bennette. \u201cPlease tell everyone that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She points to a pile of grapes in a high-sided wooden bucket. \u201cThat juice,\u201d she jabs her finger, \u201cdoesn\u2019t leave their feet and go into the barrel. Please, please, make sure everyone knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, Wende.<\/p>\n

Bennette\u2019s title at the vineyard is \u201cwine ambassador,\u201d but in practical terms that means she was the woman with the megaphone on a recent Saturday holding court before 10 teams stomping as much juice from throwaway chardonnay grapes as possible.<\/p>\n

The wine industry didn\u2019t take off here until the 1960s, but now Oregon\u2019s Willamette Valley is host to a dozen or more of these grape stomps each fall. Some wineries tie them in to Oktoberfests\u2014lederhosen, polka bands, the works. Others, like the one on this hilly sliver overlooking acres of farmland, are focused entirely on the wine.<\/p>\n

Either way, the events serve two purposes. Like Oktoberfests and other autumn harvest-themed events, grape stomps attract tourists\u2014both as participants and as spectators. But they also give winemakers a way to purge their nervousness in early fall, when grapes should be ready for harvesting but remain vulnerable to bad weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cTHREE! TWO! ONE! GO!\u201d Bennette shouted as the two-person teams got to work here at Oregon\u2019s state Grape Stomp Championship. Barefooted stompers smashed the grapes, while the scrapers did the real work, going elbow-deep in the buckets to unclog drains of skins while ducking teammates\u2019 knees and getting grape guts in their faces.<\/p>\n

Techniques varied. Some stompers ran in place. Some slid from side to side. Others did a kind of jig, trying to crush the biggest clusters of grapes. Some seemed to take personal offence at the grape\u2019s existence, angrily plunging their feet ankle-deep in the muck, as if the fruit had said something mean about their mothers.<\/p>\n

Competitions are timed; each team\u2019s yield is measured, and the team that produces the most juice wins. The winners of this event, Lisa and Dan Soete, competing as Stomping Studs, have taken several titles here before. Their win at Willamette in the Oregon state finals qualified them to compete in the World Championship Grape Stomp, Oct. 3-5 in Santa Rosa, California.<\/p>\n

Despite their success in Oregon, the pair had a dirty secret: They\u2019re actually from Washington, joining dozens of others who came from out of state to compete. \u201cWe do pretty well here,\u201d said Lisa Soete. \u201cThere\u2019s a technique, but I can\u2019t say what it is. How\u2019d we keep winning if I did?\u201d<\/p>\n

Grape stomps weren\u2019t always pure spectacle. Historically, that was how winemakers got the grapes to give up their juice. The Romans even depicted a grape stomp on a fourth-century sarcophagus. The French call it \u201cpigeage,\u201d pronounced \u201cpeej-AHJH,\u201d which means punching down, a reference to the process of pushing down the skein of grape skins that forms on the surface of a vat of fruit after the initial crush.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the grapes that weren\u2019t sent for stomping are having a pretty good year. Early reports after a hot summer predict an enormous yield this year, portending good tidings for this stretch of wine country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful,\u201d Bennette said. The grape stomp \u201cis a reminder of how close we are to what we make.\u201d<\/p>\n

If You Go…<\/h6>\n

WILLAMETTE VALLEY VINEYARDS: 8800 Enchanted Way SE, Turner, Oregon;\u00a0http:\/\/www.wvv.com\/visit<\/a>\u00a0or 503-588-9463. Tasting room open daily 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year\u2019s Day), with free daily tours at 2 p.m., $50 four-course food-and-wine pairing meals, and other events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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