MARK WAITE / PVT Billy Joe Murray and Shayne Skougard, the team that won the annual grape stomp, pour their 830 milliliters of juice into the beaker while Joe Westlund, a judge measures the quantity. Looking on are two other contestants in that heat, Rod Tuttle of Phoenix, at left, and Mary Sue Audrey of Pahrump, at right. MARK WAITE / PVT Rod Tuttle stomps grapes while his wife Terry Tuttle, helps keep the drain clear for all the juice, during the annual grape stomp at the Pahrump Valley Winery Saturday. In the second bucket, Cole and Shelby Tuttle, their sons, also competed. The older Tuttles are from Phoenix. They were visiting their children in Las Vegas. Advertisement

Bill Loken, owner of Pahrump Valley Winery, began the countdown: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

The Macarena was still popular at the annual grape stomp Saturday, as the familiar 1990s theme song played throughout the afternoon, but the dance they performed as accompaniment was the furious stomping of grapes. The stompers competed in front of the Pahrump Valley Winery stage in hopes of producing enough juice to win the medal.

A new mark was set by the second-to-last heat late Saturday: 830 milliliters, churned out by Billy Joe Murray, who did the stomping in the bucket, and Shayne Skougard, who was on his knees in front of Murray, reaching in the bucket, keeping the stems from blocking the juice that seeped into the pan.

Loken exhorted the final group of contestants:

"You have 830 milliliters of juice that you need to produce in the next two minutes to win today. To put it in perspective, a bottle of wine is 750 milliliters. So you only need a little bit more than what you have in a bottle of wine. It sounds easy, but it's like doing taxes -- it sounds easy until you try it."

The competition was the equivalent of a two-minute sprint, contestants furiously stomping their feet while partners kept the passageways in the bucket clear, not like the fun-looking, grape-stomping classic episode of "I Love Lucy."

"It's more work than you think," said Rod Tuttle of Phoenix, Ariz., who was visiting his family in Las Vegas. "It's a painful two minutes."

The brown liquid produced by the contestants was measured in beakers afterwards. It didn't look too appealing for a drink, Loken jokingly told the crowd. "This wine will be available on Thursdays. It's our toe jam chardonnay. It's a reserve."

Mary Sue Audrey said she was a repeat visitor to the grape stomp. But her two companions were visiting for their first grape stomp from Laughlin and from Las Vegas, where Audrey lived until moving to Pahrump. She mixes up the grape stomp and Fall Festival every year.

"I've been coming out here for the last six years for the Fall Festival. Oh yeah, I love it and I finally became a resident for a few years now," Audrey said. "It's the best thing going on out here is the Fall Festival. I mean, I turn people onto it every year. Last year I had my six family members out and we come out on Friday night. We barbecue at the house and on Saturday we come out and do the winery grape stomp, then we go to the rodeo Saturday night. It's the best weekend."

Loken estimated 700 people visited the winery throughout the day. Temperatures warmed into the mid-'60s after an unusually chilly morning. For the 15th straight year, Laurence T and the Real Deal served up musical entertainment during breaks in the competition.

"I had a couple, they were adamant -- they flew from Florida just to come to this thing," Loken said.

At one point he called out, "Is anybody here from Wahkon, Minnesota?" The lucky winner, from Mille Lacs County, Minn., took home a four-pack of wine, one of a number of drawings throughout the day.

The first grape stomps at the Pahrump Valley Winery were longer, but Loken said a few people were too exhausted and it was shortened to two minutes.

"You gotta get more in shape for this stuff," said Cathy Freeland, who teamed up with Tracy Walker to crush grapes with her feet. "That two minutes seems like a long time."

The winner with the 830 milliliters, Billy Joe Murray, said he put his weight into it.

"This is my first year. You got to step in and get it," Murray said.

But he admitted, with all the exertion, felt as if he was going to have a heart attack after the one-minute bell.