Stomp grapes, sip local wines at this vineyard near Las Vegas

If you want to do a little grape stomping, head to the fall harvest at this a winery in an unlikely location: the southern Nevada desert.

Yes, grapes grow quite well in the foothills of the Spring Mountains at the Pahrump Valley Winery, a one-hour drive west of the Las Vegas Strip.

Various wines made exclusively with Nevada-grown grapes will be showcased during the winery’s Grape Stomp on Oct. 1 and 2.

Stompers get to climb into half-barrels full of grapes for two minutes of frenzied fruit mashing. The action begins at noon each day with heats every 15 minutes. It costs $50 for each two-person team.

Teams win points for the most juice extracted, with prizes awarded to the best juicers and the worst stompers. All participants receive winery T-shirts.

For those who don’t want to stomp, $10 allows you to enjoy live music, food and craft booths, and tastings of various locally made wines. Among those to be sampled are Cabernet Sauvignon, Desert Blush, Merlot and Sweet Melody, a new chocolate wine.

Also, you can stop for lunch and dinner at the winery’s restaurant, Symphony’s. Entrees range from $19.75 for Winery Chicken Tuscany to $27.75 for wild Alaskan halibut.

And you’ll be able to buy wines like Barbera, Nevada Ridge, Primitivo, Silver State Red and Tempranillo, all made from locally grown grapes.

Bill and Gretchen Loken bought the winery in 2005, the same year the vineyard produced its first batch of Zinfandel grapes. After aging for more than two years in small batches, the result was the 2008 release of the first bottles of Nevada Ridge.

The 2015 harvest produced 26 tons of grapes; a slight increase is expected this year. Previous attempts to grow grapes in Pahrump had been thwarted not only by the Mojave Desert’s sometimes harsh weather but also by a herd of wild horses that trampled the vines back in the 1990s.

Info: Pahrump Valley Winery, 3810 Winery Road, Pahrump; (775) 751-7800