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Like a fine wine, the Annual Grape Stomping Celebration at The Davedi gets better with age

'This is an unforgettable night. We come every year to the grape stomping. The food is great, the entertainment is hilarious, and the music is always good for dancing after' Debra Cerasia

Lucille Ball and friends of The Davedi have something in common, a knack for stomping grapes. 

see: I Love Lucy Stomping Grapes courtesy YouTube.

Close to 300 people attended the Annual Grape Stomping Celebration in North Bay Friday night.

To the delight of the crowd, club members, dressed in traditional Italian clothing, danced their way through the venue, with grapes held high.

Many of the partygoers eagerly tossed aside their shoes and socks, and rolled up their pant legs in readiness, to experience the centuries-old tradition of winemaking.  

"Once you step on the grapes for the first time, it's very cold and it's very slippery but everybody who was in, wants to go back again," laughs club president Vince Orlando.

"We used to have honourary people doing it, but over the last few years we opened it up to whoever wants to try it, so there's a big line-up, we have about 40 people who go in. We try to get as many people through as we can because we have to stop it at some point because you know, people want to dance too." 

Julie Fraboni made the hour and a half long drive from Sudbury to experience what has been a Davedi tradition for over two decades.  

"It's my first time here and I was told I didn't have the nerve to get up and stomp grapes. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be because an Italian friend told me it used to be really hard on the feet, but it wasn't. It was fun. I'd do it again," Fraboni chuckles.

Domenic Muratore is past club president and event coordinator.

"We started this 25 years ago, and every year its grown. We go through about 12 to 14 cases of grapes. We stomp the grapes and at the end of the event we raffle the wine off to different people," explailns Muratore. "We average about two and a half gallons for a case of grapes."

"All the Italians' this time of year, they go home and make wine, something they've done for generations. We try to continue with that, put a bit of fun and laughter with it and have an enjoyable evening with the general public."

Experts say the practice of stomping grapes barefoot is perfectly safe and sanitary.

"Wine has a way of purifying itself. In the old days, doing it barefoot is all they did. They didn't have the presses like we have today, so they used their feet," explained Muratore.

Wine is something that gets better with age.

"You have to ferment it for about three or four months before you can drink it. Wine is still growing, it ferments and there's a lot of foam coming out of it. You have to wait for it to stop foaming, When it foams it expands, so if you cap it, it will blow up on you. If you drink it before then, you'll get sick." says Muratore.

"Normally in pure wine you don't add anything. Some people add sugar for a higher alcohol content. Some people add rye or whiskey to give it a different flavour. Usually, we start doing this the end of September, first of October, by the middle of January, end of January, you start drinking the wine."

The event started as a fundraiser for the club, but gradually over the years, it has become more of a cultural event.

"We do it more now to promote our culture and heritage, with the rest of the community. And the community has embraced it because every year it is always sold out, and it gets sold out a month before the event. We do it more as goodwill with the rest of the community. And actually that's what our club does, we're a non-profit organization and all the money we raise goes back into the community," says Vince Orlando.

The club president says The Davedi has been around for 65 years and is still going strong. 

"We have turned this club into a multi-cultural club. As we speak our membership consists of about 21 different nationalities."

Debra Cerasia is a long time supporter of the annual celebration. 

"This is an unforgettable night. We come every year to the grape stomping. The food is great, the entertainment is hilarious, and the music is always good for dancing after."