Steve Fulkerson's feet may have been blue from the cold, but it was hard to tell as he stomped in a sawed-off wine barrel in 50-degree weather Oct. 25, up to his ankles in purple juice. He estimates that 15 to 20 other hardy souls took their shoes off and tried their feet at squashing the half-ton of Concord grapes that his family's Fulkerson Winery had provided for the first annual Grape Stomp on the Quad to benefit the Cornell University Viticulture and Enology Club (CUVEC). Members were also selling CUVEC T-shirts proclaiming, "Grapes with good shoulders make wine with good legs," and they were encouraging passersby to tie-dye them in the grape juice.

Fulkerson, who will graduate in December with a degree in plant science, said he proposed founding CUVEC last spring "to continue our own education in viticulture and enology through fun activities and guest speakers and to promote enology and viticulture in the community, with an emphasis on converting nonmajors to the new enology major" offered by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The group meets Thursdays at 4:40 p.m. in 22 Plant Science Building.