by Denise Etheridge
White County News
Grapes got stomped and glasses stayed full at Crush Fest 2025. Yonah Mountain Vineyards’ annual event drew large crowds despite mist and scattered rain last Saturday.
“We’re always looking to make changes and make [Crush Fest] a little bit different each year,” said Russell Sauve, director of marketing. Suave said Crush Fest has been going strong since 2010, with the exception of the pandemic years. The winery expanded the festival this year with three stages of live music.
However, the mainstay activity at Crush Fest remains the same: grape stomping.
At the winery entrance, staff set out a large tub brimming with ripe, juicy grapes. Guests were invited to step in and try their feet at grape stomping — once the traditional way of crushing grapes at harvest. In earlier times, the juice pressed from those grapes would go straight into winemaking.
But not these grapes.
“The grapes we use for the barefoot grape-stomping event are not wine grapes, and the juice from the stomping will not be used to make wine,” Sauve assured. “The winery bought grapes just for this event so that visitors could experience the old winemaking tradition of stomping grapes.”
Sautee resident Leesa Smith and four of her friends who were visiting from Destin, Fla., held tight to one another before climbing into the cool metal tub to stomp and squish.
Smith said she’s been coming to Crush Fest for the past 10 years.
“We came when they had the helicopter rides,” she said.
Another gal pal group, who called themselves “The Lucy’s,” sported t-shirts adorned with Lucille Ball’s likeness. The image was taken from the classic “I Love Lucy” episode when Lucy ends up wrestling with an Italian woman in a large vat of wine grapes.
“We thought about doing the whole dress-up thing,” Holly Reese said. “Maybe next year.”
Two bands, Wesley and the Ridge Riders and Legacy, performed inside the winery’s spacious ballroom. Singer/songwriters Monica Spears and Julie Gribble entertained on the outdoor stage and the Tropical Breeze Steel Band played beneath a tent near the market.
Food trucks and vendors selling everything from jewelry and art to natural soaps and organic hot sauces bordered a meadow set up for an artists market below the Tuscan-style winery.
Bob and Jane Miller established Yonah Mountain Vineyards 20 years ago. The 200-acre family winery is managed by their son, Eric Miller.
The agri-tourism destination is nestled at the foot of Mount Yonah, 1717 Highway 255 South in Cleveland.