One of the best things about Harvest time in Santa Ynez valley and Santa Barbara wine country is the annual Celebration of Harvest event. The other is stomping grapes.

Several wineries in the area have grape stomping parties, some of which you can race through the vineyard, wear a toga, or reserve some of your own wine that you stomped (along with the other stompers). Read below to find out where…

Kalyra Winery: the Great Grape Stomp

This is one of the oldest grape stomp parties in Santa Ynez valley, and I do mean a party. You can show up in anything from a Lucy Grape Stomp outfit to a toga. Any grape-related costume is encouraged, as well as drinking as much wine as possible, then jumping on a drunken tractor winery tour, plus eating and dancing to live music on the front porch. Get a first-hand account and find details here.

Sunstone Winery: Harvest Stomp Party

This yearly event over two weekends in September is a favorite grape stomp event in the area. It’s an all-day affair in the gorgeous Provençal-style vineyard and winery. It begins with a special bubbly cocktail made just for the event, then picking grapes in the vineyard. After being educated by the winemaker and Rice family on winemaking, you’ll climb into the grape vats and stomp to your heart’s content. A gourmet picnic lunch is also included, as well as the family’s line of wines, including some from the underground, dusty library. Get details here.

Andrew Murray Vineyards: Harvest Open House

When Andrew Murray opens his winery to the public, you want to go. The food is really good, the Syrah is plentiful, and the music and ambiance makes for a lovely fall afternoon in the vineyards. A bonus: this year you get to stomp grapes as well. You’ll also see some of the best Weekend Wine Specials of the whole year. It’s a good time to stock up, eat your fill and stomp down. Held at the winery on Foxen Canyon Road, call for directions.

Tres Hermanas Winery: Your Own Custom Crush

Each fall at this event in Santa Maria Valley, you can pick, crush and stomp your own grapes, and make your own wine. Winemaker Luke Lindquist will guide you through the process, then give you some of his wines’ barrel select tastings and feed you lunch. After your wine is bottled (roughly 15 months), you’ll get your own case of wine that you helped make! And you’ll get much more information and instruction than you bargained for with Luke’s vast expertise. It might just end up being the best wine you’ll ever make. Will be held at the winery on Foxen Canyon Road, contact the winery here.

Gainey Winery: Grape Stomp & Crush Party

Enjoy a full day of activities like grape-picking, special barrel samples, aroma demonstrations and the ever-popular barefoot grape stomp. Held each September, read more here.

There are several clues at Tres Hermanas Winery in California’s Santa Maria Valley that you are among cattle ranchers: the big red barn next to the tasting room (used by the Teixeira family’s ranching forefathers), the miles of ranch land and small herds of animals surrounding the winery, and the mechanical horse proudly displayed in the tasting room (and yes, customers can still ride this horse).

But what you really want to do is taste the wines. There are around 20 small-lot production wines for sale, with 6 on the current tasting sheet. If you get one of the family members behind the bar – it’s not hard to do…Paulette Teixeira, her sister Beverly and her daughters Stacey, Tracey and Marcey (the three sisters) frequently work in the winery – or even better, the wine maker Mark Horvath, ask if anything else is open for tasting.

You won’t be disappointed. Every wine on the sheet is unique, interesting, well-made and highly enjoyable. Exceptional even, especially the 2007 Roussanne – a white Rhone varietal that has been gaining popularity, some of which Luke made with wild yeast – and the 2007 Refosco, a grape native to northern Italy, Croatia and Slovenia and hardly made in California, or in the US at all. Deeper and more complex than a Sangiovese but lighter and easier-to-go-down than a Cab or Syrah, this Refosco is a real find here in Santa Barbara wine country. All these wines are gems.

Mark is intent on doing something different, something new, while retaining all the heritage and traditions of old world wine making. And it shows. Ask for a tour of the winery and vineyards and you’re in for a real treat: learning about terroir, trellising, bud break and shatter, seeing wines in various stages of cold fermentation and aging, and visiting horses, cows and sheep.

In fact, this is still the headquarters for the family cattle operation and if you happen to be enjoying this countryside along Foxen Canyon road on an early spring morning, you could witness a Cattle Branding right here in front of the barn. Cattle will fill the hills with their plaintive moos while young calves are herded into groups, then roped and branded one by one with the JT cattle brand by a host of neighborly ranch hands.

This is cowboy wine country.

• You can stay the night at Tres Hermanas.

But the sign says Firestone Vineyards, I thought, turning into the Santa Ynez valley winery on Foxen Canyon road. The map I printed says to turn here to get to the winery of Andrew Murray Vineyards, where I was headed for a Fall celebration of the winemaker, his syrah and its pork pairing on the cover of Food+Wine magazine.

I did a u-turn and drove the length of the road, then drove back still looking, stopping in front of Firestone again. I called Andrew Murray’s tasting room in Los Olivos, where the young woman laughed and said this always happens. I was to pretend I was going to Firestone, drive through the property, then turn back in the hills away from the main road. When I saw the Area 51 sign pointing up over the next golden hill, I knew I was in the right place.

The small silver warehouse was organized for an elegant gathering; a table of food in the main entrance and wine on barrels in the cellar room. Everywhere we saw huge photos of Andrew Murray, his vineyards, and the 2005 Côte-Rôtie (“roasted slope”) paired with pork and tomatillo stew on the magazine cover. A single guitarist was quietly playing in the corner.

The smell of spicy pork and Hispanic spices tickled our noses. We checked the wine room and realized we would taste about twelve wines, including seven different syrahs. We decided we should taste each syrah with the stew, to determine the best pairing ourselves.

Seventeen tastes of wine later (we had to re-taste a few, just to be sure), having emptied the pot of stew to the discontent of the kitchen staff, we definitely determined that Andrew’s syrah went perfectly with pork stew. Pork and Syrah: yes. Which syrah would have to be left to the expert, as we emptied our glasses yet again (more Roasted Slope please), harassed the caterers for more stew and yelled to the guitarist to play some AC/DC.

I just hope he lets us come to the next party.