Isn't that a great photo?!! It's almost hard to believe an adventure could take place in such a lovely space. I sure didn't think we were headed to a winery when Meghan said she was "registering" us for an upcoming adventure and asked for our t-shirt sizes. Thoughts like, "T-shirts??? She's going to make me run a dang race, isn't she?? <expletive>," were running through my head. (Disclosure: I don't run. At all. Like, if I had to run for my life, I'd happily die.)
Alli's mind wandered down a similar path, and we made an agreement that we would stick together and walk our way through whatever awful race was headed our way. Lucky for us, Meghan doesn't want to have to listen to us whine and complain about running just as much as we don't want to have to run, so she did NOT plan a race-running adventure... instead, we were headed into wino warfare.
This past Saturday, we competed in Stone Pillar winery's Grape Stomp, "A Smashing Good Time!" We were divided into two teams, as the maximum number of participants per team was four. The competition was staged in heats of four teams at a time and there were probably 30-40 teams altogether. Our first team, which consisted of Amy, Alli, Meghan and Leah, was called to partake in the first heat. Here you will see both our teams before their heats started:
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| Top: Team Fearless Femmes, Bottom: Team DJ Jess |
At the beginning of each heat, the participating teams would line up and on the count of three were released to run amongst the rows of vines, frantically collecting grapes in their buckets. Once they had a full bucket, they would run back to their 'stomping station' and dump the grapes they collected into a larger basin for stomping. Two teammates would then stomp the grapes while another was responsible for funneling the juice into a wine bottle.
Our first team finished third in their heat with a time of 4 minutes, something seconds. The first heat teams were definitely at a disadvantage as they had to figure out their own strategies and make their own mistakes, which everyone else could then learn from. Being Femmes though, these girls didn't let that hinder their fun, enthusiasm or efforts.
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| Here we are picking grapes! |
I was on the second team, along with Jessi and Jessica, and we competed in the second heat. We had gained a few pointers from the other girls and used that to our advantage, finishing first in our heat with a time of 3 minutes, 25 seconds and taking the overall top standing. Woohoo! I'm not going to deny that I worked up a bit of a sweat with that stomping performance! Check out my game face below...
Despite the (self-induced) drama, and even though we were only adventuring for a few minutes, we all had a great time enjoying the beautiful, mild weather, the frozen wine slushies and each other's company. In the end, we realize we don't need a gold spray-painted wine bottle trophy to declare us winners... we know we are winning at life as we have a sisterhood others could only dream of!!
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| Two things to note: 1) Leah is still all smiles and no sweat, even when grape juice and pulp are flying! 2) You may notice my hand in the basin, but that was only for a moment to clear the clogged drain (read: NOT cheating) |
After our heat, a trend started with more and more teams abandoning the foot stomping concept for a more efficient 'hands-on' approach and our standing on the leader board was quickly demolished. Of course, we declared this was against the rules and deemed 80% of the teams "cheaters," even though the event organizers seemed to think this was okay. (Update: according to their website, the winery describes the event as a "competition for bragging rights as the fastest foot juicers in Johnson County!") So technically, we win as we had the fastest time of all the teams that only used their feet!! Yeah, yeah, winning isn't everything, blah blah blah... it's really more about the social justice of the situation... :)
MVP awards are definitely owed to Alli and Jessi who volunteered to be the 'funnel-er' for their respective teams. As you can see, it was a less glamorous, albeit equally invaluable role....
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| Jessi and Alli manning the 'splash zone' |
Despite the (self-induced) drama, and even though we were only adventuring for a few minutes, we all had a great time enjoying the beautiful, mild weather, the frozen wine slushies and each other's company. In the end, we realize we don't need a gold spray-painted wine bottle trophy to declare us winners... we know we are winning at life as we have a sisterhood others could only dream of!!
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It was all smiles and thumbs up after completing our adventure... anyone thirsty? Today's special is Pin-toe Grigio! ;)
