Stompers wanted: Plympton-Wyoming winery's fall fundraiser returns

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Registration is open for the eighth-annual fundraising Grape Stomp at Alton Farms Estate Winery in Plympton-Wyoming.

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There’s space at this year’s event, set for Oct. 7, for up to 100 competitors to find out how much juice they can stomp out of a tub of grapes in 60 seconds.

Trophies and bragging rights are up for grabs during the fundraiser for the Bluewater Centre for Raptor Rehabilitation. Registration information can be found on the winery’s website, altonfarmsestatewinery.com/events.

A $10 entry fee from each stomper, as well as fees paid by artisan vendors who will be set up near stomping grounds on the winery patio, will go to the centre also in Plympton-Wyoming.

A machine normally makes quick work of de-stemming and crushing grapes at Lambton County’s pioneer estate winery near Aberarder but its owners began organizing a fall event several years ago to give visitors a chance to experience the ancient wine-making method of crushing grapes with bare feet.

“My age and older, you know they’ve seen the I Love Lucy where she’s stomping the grapes,” said Anne Kurtz-Alton, who runs the winery with her husband Marc Alton.

“I guess it’s a meme out there, if I’m using the term correctly,” Kurtz-Alton said about an iconic scene from the 1950’s TV episode, Lucy’s Italian Movie, where star, Lucille Ball, stomps grapes in a giant vat and ends in a wrestling match with another actor-stomper.

“That’s what most people talk about – Lucy stomping the grapes,” Kurtz-Alton said.

Ball later told interviewers the on-camera wrestling with the Italian-speaking woman who was her acting partner in the scene got so serious at one point the star feared she might drown in the vat of mushed grapes and juice.

There’s no risk of that at the Alton Farms’ event where each stomper stomps in their own bucket of grapes.

“It is so much fun,” Kurtz-Alton said.

One of last year’s winners was 74 and celebrating her birthday at the stomp.

“She was so excited,” Kurtz-Alton said. “She ran around kissing her trophy.”

The stomp also typically attracts a large number of youngsters as competitors.

Kurtz-Alton said there will be live music, food and wine, along with the artisan market, for visitors and stompers to enjoy during the event that begins at noon, with the first stomping heat at 1 p.m.

It continues until 6 p.m., and the stomping goes until all the grapes available that day are stomped or all the stompers have had a turn.

“We had about 80 people stomping” at last year’s event and $1,400 was raised for the centre, Kurtz-Alton said.

For the last three decades, the centre has been treating injured birds of prey and releasing them again into the wild.

“Birds of prey are important in the vineyard,” where they discourage smaller birds from nesting in the vines and eating the grapes before harvest, Kurtz-Alton said.

“Birds are a big issue” and typically as soon as ripening grapes begin to turn red, “bing – they’re on it,” she said.

Along with the birds, the winery’s vineyard is feeling the impact of this summer’s extreme weather.

“I don’t think it has been a good year for any kind of crop,” between hot temperatures early on in the growing season, and then cooler conditions later on, Kurtz-Alton said.

Rain and humidity this year was also tough on the grapes. “They like to be dry,” she said.

“It was not the greatest year for us, but we’re used to that by now,” Kurtz-Alton said. “We don’t cry so much anymore – not like we used to.”

The Altons began growing grapes 18 years ago and recently celebrated 10 years of winemaking.

Kurtz-Alton said they will pick some of their own grapes for the stomp, if they are ripe enough, but also have contracted to buy grapes from a Huron County vineyard around that time that will be available as a backup.

“The grapes that we stomp get processed like any other grapes” and are made into wine, she said.

“It goes through fermentation which kills off all human pathogens,” Kurtz-Alton said.

“Their stomped grapes could be in the wine next year or the year after.”