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Treading grapes is not everybody’s idea of a holiday pursuit, but for a certain kind of wine lover the opportunity to get down and dirty with locals from the Tuscan hills to the Douro Valley is not to be missed.

Hotels such as the Aquapura, in Portugal, and green holiday companies such as Responsible Travel offer wine breaks around harvest time that allow you turn both feet and grapes to pulp.

It’s a bit of fun for holidaymakers but a serious business for locals. You have to be the right weight to do it, for a start – too heavy and you crush not just the grapes but also the pips, which leave a bitter taste. Indeed, though most vineyards have mechanised the process, where it is still carried out in the traditional way grape crushing is taken so seriously that some vats have built-in urinals, to ensure that work doesn’t stop just because nature calls.

Unfortunately, it can be a dangerous job. What eye could but be caught by a headline on Decanter.com: “Amateur winemakers die treading grapes.” It happened just over a year ago, when two men helping out a friend in Bordeaux by crushing his grapes barefoot in a vat succumbed to the carbon dioxide fumes produced during fermentation. This, combined with a lack of ventilation, is thought to have killed them. It’s a little something to bear in mind next time you find yourself tempted to join in the fun at a grape-harvest festival. Maybe just stick to drinking the wine.