Murphys, CA…Thousands of visitors descended on Murphys for the annual celebration of all things grape in Murphys. The Calaveras Grape Stomp & the accompanying Gold Rush Street Fair were the center of our wine loving universe for the day as team after team took to the barrels and did their best to crush every ounce of juice out of their batch of grapes. This year’s stomp field was sold out even before the event got underway.
The 2016 Top Teams from left to right: Grapeful Dead (Dale & Jennifer Marcum); Cork Fungus Fairies (Ricky Ingraham & Ursula Kline); Sushi & Waswabi (Craig Wright & Tamao Nakahara)
A bit more about the Grape Stop…At the Grape Stomp, teams of two – a Swabber (sometimes called a Mucker) and a Stomper compete to extract the most juice out of measured amounts of wine grapes. The juice is precisely measured and prizes are awarded to all the winners, with special prizes for the top finishers in the Championship Stomp. And, new this year, every team gets their very own Stomp Bag of Swag!Teams are encouraged to appear in costume, or not, and prizes are awarded for costumes based on originality, design, and effort.
But there’s a lot more to the Grape Stomp than the wanton destruction of two tons of perfectly good grapes. The Silent Auction this year is slimmed down and buffed up, but wait, there’s more — you could win a 10-day trip to Australia (or New Zealand, you choose) in the new Great Grape Stomp Raffle! Proceeds from the Grape Stomp support local community groups.So make plans now to come have some great food, enjoy award-winning Calaveras wine, the huuuge Street Faire, and of course take in the best Grape Stomp in California.
The 2016 Grape Stomp Stomped & Mucked It’s Way Into The History Books. The Grapeful Dead Continue Their Reign! added by admin on
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