If you look at the history of winemaking, you will find that it is believed that grape stomping goes back as far as Rome in 200 BC. It seems that for centuries, grapes were picked by hand and grape stomping was the method by which the juice was extracted from the grapes to be used to make wine. This was done in every country that made wine.

In the U.S., however, most grape stomping by human feet was legislated out of existence by the end of the twentieth century. The concern for public health outweighed the grape stomping tradition, and people didn’t want to think about the fact the someone’s bare feet had touched the wine they were enjoying with dinner. Most other countries eventually banned grape stomping too, but there are still some countries outside of North America where grapes are still stomped by humans.