You can wine all you like

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Angelo Anania holds grapes as Joe Grande feeds his sister, Marilena Moccia. (JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ) Photo Store

Because you're looking a little sad today, I'm going to tell you a love story. It's the passionate tale of a man and his barrel.

The man is Giuseppe "Joe" Grande, owner of Mona Lisa Ristorante, the Corydon Avenue landmark where my cherubic buddy has been dishing up soul-satisfying Italian food and heartfelt hugs for the last 30 years.

The barrel is a 1.8-metre by 2.4-metre cedar tub Joe had built a few years ago to fulfil a lifelong dream -- taking off his shoes, climbing inside and, along with several of his closest friends, stomping grapes into wine with his bare feet.

"It's got a Plexiglas window in front so people can watch the grapes being stomped," Joe said proudly.

"It's like a giant see-through bathtub," he beamed. "You have to climb into it with a ladder and there's a drain on the bottom with a faucet so you can drain out the juice.

"There's nothing more fun than sharing that experience of stomping grapes and making wine with your feet. Everybody wants to know what it feels like."

Speaking of which, you can find out exactly what it feels like on Thursday, Sept. 20, at Stomp for Tradition, a fundraising wine festival being held at Mona Lisa in support of a seniors housing project being undertaken by the Caboto Centre, Winnipeg's Italian centre.

Along with a 10-course Italian feast and live music, Joe plans to dump 30 or 40 cases of grapes into his beloved barrel and let customers in Roman-style togas stomp their stress away. (Tickets are $100 and can be obtained by calling Mona Lisa at 204-488-3687. Togas are optional.)

As a hard-hitting journalist with a fear of toe fungus, I understand Joe's passion for making wine the old-fashioned way. I spent some time in the barrel in 2009 and 2010 when the gregarious restaurateur held his first two stomps in support of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

But this time, for Joe, it's personal. This time, it's all about his Italian heritage and helping the community.

"The Italian community is reaching out to build this seniors facility," Joe explained. "It'll be a place where retired Italian Winnipeggers can go and still hold onto some of their traditions of food and wine. It's the first time I've done an event to raise money for the Italian community. This is something special."

Or, as Joe's sister, Marilena Moccia, put it during one of the countless moments when Joe had to jump up to hug and kiss a customer: "It's all about tradition and getting back to our roots and what we're all about -- making the wine. It takes me back to being a little girl. We used to make wine with our dad. It's family."

Joe's passion for making wine with his extremities began when, at the age of six, he was literally thrown into a community grape stomp in the small village of Amato, in Calabria, a region in southern Italy.

"All these grapes were being poured into a huge cement tub and the guys were stomping and one of my uncles picked me up and tossed me in," recalled Joe, who finally became a Canadian citizen this year, 46 years after moving to Winnipeg.

"I couldn't move because it was so heavy and swampy. It was like being stuck in quicksand. My uncle had to pull me out before I drowned. Then we moved to Canada and we didn't do any more stomping."

So, for decades, Joe quietly dreamed of hopping back in a barrel with his loved ones. "Being Italian and not knowing what it's like to make wine with your feet -- a part of me was missing," he said.

But that's not the point of this love story. The point is Joe is living the dream again, and he wants the rest of us to climb in and live it with him, if you catch my charitable drift.

"We'll be washing your feet for you before you get in the barrel," he promised. "You just have to stomp and try not to slide all over the place, unless you really want to take a bath in it. Just jump up and down."

And speaking of being a proud Canadian, on the night of the stomp, MP Joyce Bateman will be there to award Joe a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, which is being presented to Canadians for significant contributions to their community in celebration of the Queen's 60th year on the throne.

Italian or not, I strongly recommend everyone buy several tickets and start trimming their toenails. Because that's the way this love story ends. And because it's your turn in the barrel.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 12, 2012 A2