I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.

I'm Levy Dalton.

I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, An age-old way to get grape juice for fermenting is to foot-tread grapes.

Near the fertile crescent and the motherland of veneifer grapes,

one of the earliest treading troughs was a hollowed out tree trunk.

This technology spread through the winemaking world,

and soon different regions were coming up with their own ways to tread grapes and collect the juice.

By the time wine growing got to ancient Egypt, grape treading was somewhat of an art form.

paintings in the Tomb of Nacht depict some early Egyptians treading grapes in a

vat and the juice coming out of a spout at the bottom. The treaders are holding on to handles

suspended over the vat to keep them from falling.

But Nact was no Pharaoh.

He was married to a musician wife, and he himself was a non-royal scribe who studied the

stars in order to help pick the dates for special festivals.

His tomb depicts many cotidian events, plowing, harvesting, and winemaking, and he most likely helped to pick the dates for harvest festivals.

Many regions used wood containers in which to tread, similar to large barrels.

Some regions adopted shallow troughs. In fact, shallow treading troughs made of stones

held together with mortar were used in Jerusalem and can still be seen there today.

Even now shallow troughs are commonplace in Portugal, where you'll find Ligares in the Duro. These shallow bats are often made of cement and nowadays

you see stainless steel ones too and they are

meant to keep the liquid around me length. The wide large bats also spread out the

cap more so that more juice is in contact with the skins and you get a richer extraction

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