Larson Family Winery Grape Stomp

After lunch, we did some light shopping and then met up with Kristen and Drew to drive to Sonoma for John and Erin’s wedding weekend. The drive was traffic heavy but we managed to get to Larson Family Winery right in time for the grape stomp. John and Erin planned a fun weekend for all of their wedding guests (grape stomp on Friday, wineries on Saturday, and the wedding on Sunday!) The winery had corn hole, bocce ball, picnic tables, and a grape stomp competition area:

Grape stomp competitions are usually six minutes long and there are two people on a team – one person is stomping the grapes and the other is cleaning out a screen to get the juice. We decided to only do one minute per person (and have teams of six) so everyone would get a chance to stomp. Here are the grapes we stomped:

The referee said you have to do a ceremonial foot wash for the first person to get into the grape stomping bucket (why would you only clean the first person’s feet?!) – luckily, the groom, John, was the first guy to do the stomp and got his feet cleaned by one of the wedding guests:

The grape stomp started and was more difficult than I thought it would be! The grapes break down almost immediately so you’re stomping around in an ankle-deep container of grape juice, grape skin, and grape seeds and you’re trying to help your teammate get juice into the jug! Here’s Drew and Pat working together:

I lucked out and didn’t have to work the screen (it was really messy and people had grape juice all over their clothes) – we ended up getting second place (the bride’s team won!). I posted the video on instagram, which you can see here. What a great way to start the wedding festivities!