Third Annual Artsakh wine festival (17092016)

Grape-treading or grape-stomping is part of the method of maceration used in traditional

wine-making Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and w ...

.Clarke, Oz (2009). ''Oz Clarke's Pocket Wine Guide 2010.'' Sterling Publishing Company, Cheap, BA (2010). ''Mr. Cheap's Guide to Wine.'' Adams Media, Rather than being crushed in a

wine press A winepress is a device used to extract juice from crushed grapes during wine making. There are a number of different styles of presses that are used by wine makers but their overall functionality is the same. Each style of press exerts contro ...

or by another mechanized method,

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

are repeatedly trampled in vats by barefoot participants to release their juices and begin fermentation. Grape-treading was widespread in the

history of wine Wine has been produced for thousands of years, with evidence of ancient wine production in Georgia from BC (the earliest known traces of wine), West Azerbaijan province of Iran from BC, Armenia from BC (large-scale production), and Sicil ...

making, but with the introduction of industrial methods, it now survives mostly as a recreational or competitive activity at cultural festivals.

History

One of the earliest extant visual representations of the practice appears on a

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

sarcophagus from the 3rd century AD, which depicts an idealized pastoral scene with a group of

Erotes In Ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Erotes () are a collective of winged gods associated with love and sexual intercourse. They are part of Aphrodite's retinue. ''Erotes'' (Greek ) is the plural of ''Eros'' ("Love, Desire"), who as a s ...

harvesting and stomping grapes at Vindemia, a rural festival.Wight, Karol (2008)
Roman sarcophagus, c. 290-300 AD.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Many contemporary wineries hold grape-stomping contests to attract visitors. The practice is also the subject of many depictions in contemporary media, including the 1974

Mel Tillis Lonnie Melvin Tillis (August 8, 1932 – November 19, 2017) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s as part of the outlaw country movement, ...

song "Stomp Them Grapes", the ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along wit ...

'' episode "Lucy's Italian Movie", and ''The Littlest Grape Stomper'', a children's book by Alan Madison.Hope, Morrison (2007)
The Littlest Grape Stomper (review)
''Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books'', Volume 60, Number 9, May 2007 The novel ''

The Secret of Santa Vittoria ''The Secret of Santa Vittoria'' is a 1969 American war film distributed by United Artists. It was produced and directed by Stanley Kramer and co-produced by George Glass from a screenplay by Ben Maddow and William Rose. It was based on the be ...

'' and the film based on it, taking place in a wine-producing Italian town during

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, include a grape treading scene which has a major role in the battle of wits between the townspeople and their German occupiers.

References

External links

World Championship Grape Stomp
via Sonoma County Harvest Fair {{wine-stub Winemaking Barefoot Food processing

History

See also

References

External links