Is wine still made by stomping grapes by foot.
Answer From Expert Roger Bohmrich MW
Stomping or treading grapes is as old as winemaking itself. Murals in the tombs of ancient Egyptians depict cellar workers standing in shallow stone troughs and repeatedly stepping on and crushing grapes so as to extract color and flavoring matter. Today, there are numerous examples of foot-trodden wines on the Iberian peninsula. The practice lives on especially in the Douro for Vintage Port, although it has been largely replaced by mechanical methods. Quinto do Infantado uses foot treading for a red Douro table wine, and Dona Maria in Alentejo relies on feet for their Julio B. Bastos bottling. Some wines made by Envinate in the Canary Islands follow this practice. Domaine du Possible in Roussillon (France) uses it in part. In Australia, d'Arenberg employs stomping for all their reds. Even some Pinot Noir makers such as Cono Sur in Chile take advantage of gentle foot pressing to extract all the best of the grape without crushing the pips and releasing bitter compounds into the wine. As a rule, labor-intensive foot treading depends on a small scale of production, and, while individual makers here and there may believe in its value, it will never become the norm as it was in ancient times.
