Grape expectations

So here I am the champ. Yes indeed behind the cheers of an adoring crowd of Nine News Now viewers I won the first annual grape stomp this weekend in Crownsville. I am pictured here with one of my competitors. Jessica Cartalija is an anchor at WJZ in Baltimore. She was in the oak barrel next to me, but she couldn't keep up with my thunderous legs. I also competed against an anchor from the Fox station in Baltimore and a disc jockey from a local DC radio station.

Needless to say it was a lot of fun. But it's a lot harder than you think. The heat was unbearable. They timed us. We had to see how much wine juice we could produce in 5 minutes. When the announcer said we had another 2 minutes left, I was ready to collapse. I thought for sure his timer had broken. I looked at the other pitchers in front of the other competitors. I couldn't believe it they were quickly filling up with the ugly, dirty liquid. There's were filling up fast, mine looked almost empty. I didn't mind losing really, it's not life or death, but I didn't want to be humiliated. You have to remember most of the audience has spent the day drinking, so could you imagine the cat calls?

So what was the deal? Here is the low down. The grapes were getting stuck in the nozzle that led out of the barrel into the pitcher. So an assistant arrived and poked around with a thin, long metal rod. It kept jabbing at my feet, but that's okay, the liquid was beginning to spill out and the contest was getting closer. In the end I was able to fill more than three pitchers of the liquid. I walked away with a trophy, and some very sticky feet.

Look for more on all of this in an upcoming piece in the Washington Post. They are working on a feature story about the popularity of grape stomps for the Sunday Source.