Monday, June 7, 2010

To Stomp or Not to Stomp?


There seems to be a resurrection of an age-old ritual: Foot-stomping grapes. One winemaker claims he can better judge the ripeness of the grapes, by stomping them. (I wonder why his just feeling the clusters with his hands would not accomplish the same thing.)
Some (not all) stompers spray disinfectant on their legs and feet; sometimes that is distilled grape spirits. But does that disinfectant get beneath toenails and into the pores of skin cells?
I have smelled the following things in craft-made, expensive wines, in my time: sweat, marijuana, smoke. No, thank you. I have heard that sometimes, during primary fermentation, the winemaker and friends may skinny-dip in the tanks, to feel that "fizz" on their bodies. No, thank you (although skinny dipping certainly has its time and place). And who knows how many toenails, hairs, junk from dirty feet, and flakes of toenail polish have made it into wine, from stomping, skinny dipping, and whatever other horrors are impinged upon the grape? ;) I know that some insects get in there. But we can avoid excessive human contact with wine, if we choose to.
I vote let's all just leave crushing and fermenting to the machines and vessels designed for those purposes. Machines and vessels that can be sterilized before their use. And if this is to be even more of a socialist country anyway, how about we just require wines to bear a special warning label, if they were stomped or swum in?

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