Growing up making wine....

Uva, Ragina, grapes ready for harvest...

From my earliest memories growing up in the Bronx, I remember the ritual that was wine making every September.  It was a magical time of the year.  My father and two uncles would get together and make wine as a family.  There were amazing smells of fermenting grapes and tremendous Italian meals.




I knew that it was important to them since we had a wine room.  It was strange when I went to visit friends growing up and finding that they didn't have such a room in their house.  Everyone of my relatives had one, I guess I thought everyone did.

The process of making wine at that time was a tradition brought from Sicily.  My father was a Cooper (barrel maker).  There was wine at every meal, usually diluted with 7up.  I know this sounds sacrilegious to modern wine drinkers but it is my preferred way of drinking wine today(give it a try).

There were many stories of how wine was made in the "Old Country".  Yes, they literally mashed the grapes with their feet but that was much earlier than the times when my father was there 30's and 40's.  There was an annual feast called Vendemmia in the small town where my parents were from that re-enacted the old time grape stomping process.  The feast in that same town was re-established several years ago and continues to this day.