Fence Stile Vineyards and Winery held its annual Grape Stomp on Sunday, Oct. 8th, to close out the harvest season. After 7-8 weeks of harvesting grapes each Sunday, this ritual is a fun way to squash some grapes, celebrate with our guests, and enjoy some wine.

There's no need to dress up in a traditional outfit like Lucille Ball in the classic "I Love Lucy" grape-stomping scene. Guests step into the tub of grapes and stems, step high, and start smashing. Before long, the grapes yield bright, aromatic juice. 

Of course, the juice produced from squishing grapes isn't actually used for making wine. That's how it was done in the early days of winemaking. The alcohol produced during the fermentation process is high enough to kill microbes before wine is produced and consumed. 

We enjoyed having harvest volunteers and guests out for a sunny day to play in the grapes. And the remaining grapes and juice? All of it returns to the vineyard for composting. It's part of the cycle to nourish the vines as a tribute in hopes that they flourish once again next year. 

A lively group of Centurions from the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce visited Fence Stile Vineyards and Winery in late September for a wine tasting and retreat. After the group sampled wines and ate food from KC Pinoy food truck, they spent the afternoon on the spacious flagstone patio. 

As an icebreaker, the new class of Centurions performed their best John Travolta impression for the group. Needless to say, there was plenty of talent on site that day. 

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​Planning a corporate or nonprofit event, holiday party, family gathering, or other group event? Fence Stile has a range of options for space indoors and outdoors – patio, private deck, private dining room for small groups, cellar garden, wine cave, and, of course, our Tasting Room. Our culinary director can create a custom menu for your event. We can also create custom wine sampling and pairing options, offer winery and wine cave tours, and other amenities to make planning a memorable event fun and free of stress.

​Contact events@fencestile.com to learn more and book a date.

In the last of our Harvest Music Playlist Series, we share some song selections by Troy Mull. Troy assists the crush pad team with his skills in driving and navigating the tractor. He moves macro-bins full of harvested grapes to the scale for weighing and then unloads the grapes from the bin into the crusher-destemmer for initial processing. He's a huge help behind-the-scenes on the crush pad as well as harvest. 

Troy's "stile" in music consists of hair bands and heavy metal. He shares his rockin' list of artists and songs below. Check out other harvest playlists from winemaker Stephen Dollar, vineyard manager Shawna Mull, and general manager/culinary director Pete Dulin.

Now that the harvest season is over, we welcome guests to drop into the Tasting Room for new releases of Chambourcin and Reserve Chambourcin that are ideal for cool weather sipping. Also, we've switched from WineIn movies to FirePit Fridays in the evening (weather permitting). Enjoy a bottle of wine, a warm blanket, and conversation around our firepit on the patio. With live music on Saturdays and wine cave tours and candlelit tastings on select Friday evenings and Saturdays, Fence Stile Winery offers plenty of reasons to enjoy the fruits of harvest labor. In other words, visit us and drink some white, red, rosé, or sparkling wine that ranges from dry to semi-dry to sweet. 

Troy Mull's Harvest Tractoring Playlist

Soldiers - Drowning Pool (video)

Love & War - Drowning Pool (video)

Dirt - Alice in Chains (video)

Billion Dollar Baby - Alice Cooper (video)

Man in the Box - Alice in Chains (video)

Rumbling Train - Badlands (video)

Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N Roses (video)

Breaking the Law - Judas Priest (video)

Cold Gin - KISS (video)

Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne (video)

Caught in a Dream - Tesla (video)