Bare Feet and French Maid Uniforms
Everyone likes to ask me if I crush the grapes with my feet. Normally my reply is, “Yeah, I do it all the time, and wearing a French maid’s uniform!”

Which of course, isn’t true but the reaction I get from people is usually worth a chuckle. But after today I can really say that I have. Only I was wearing Carharts rolled up to my thighs, not quite as sexy, unless that's your thing... I didn't intend to foot-crush the grapes, but I was making the wine at Sawtooth Winery and got to be the guinea pig for a fabulous new destemmer they have. The new destemmer has vibrating sorting tables before and after the destemming happens, so every offending leaf or stem can be removed. However this destemmer did not have crushing rollers, which is the invention that makes foot stomping obsolete. So my berries, which I was intending for my Rosé of Syrah, came out the end of the destemmer completely whole. This effect is desirable for other styles of wine, but with Rosé, you want the skin broken up a bit so that the color comes out over the course of a couple hours, then you press the grapes and treat them like a white wine from that point. So I had a bin full of perfectly whole berries that were so dense when I initially jumped in I only sunk up to my ankles. But it was easy to see why foot stomping was the method of choice in the old days because it was so effective that my bin was full of juice in about 15 minutes and I was sinking up to my knee. Don’t worry--I washed my feet first!

If the method was good enough for Lucy, it’s good enough for me.

Watch a Video of a Foot Crush »