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GRAPE juice flowed freely at Bago Vineyards yesterday although unfortunately the Port News team of Jed and Ruth Lewis were unable to replicate the success of their predecessors 12 months ago.
The frenzied squelching sound of grapes being squished in the barrels under the shade of the trees could be heard across the vineyard. Ultimately the Lewis duo weren’t quite good enough with the ABC crew of Michael Spooner and Cameron Marshall mastering their technique, stomping their way to 5.7 litres worth of juice.
Mr Lewis likened his 60 seconds worth of stomping as something he believed was more difficult than what most professional athletes did on a regular basis.
“I believe it was a tougher scenario than taking the hit-up off kick off at the State of Origin - or oranges if you like - but we were well beaten by about 200 mills in the end,” he said.
“At the end of the day we didn’t want to go too hard because it would get a bit boring if Port News kept on winning things; we wanted to give the other guys a chance.
“I was waiting for a bell or something to tell us we had 10 seconds left and before I knew it, it was over. I thought we had a powerplay,” he laughed.
Later in the day the winners of the open grape stomp, Brad Smith and Aman Pannu, squashed their way to victory with the final measurements reading 6.2 litres.
Grape stomping success runs in the family with Brad’s father Lyall winning the stomp four years ago.