Learning about wine, one barrel at a time
The largest annual event put on by Wine Road of Northern Sonoma County, the two-weekend affair provides a chance to try unfinished wines still in the barrel, in most cases months before they’re bottled and perhaps years before they would normally be released.
It wasn’t all serious. But winemakers, whether serving very new wines or those nearly finished, said the event provides a chance for tasters to learn about the origins and evolution of different wines as they grow in complexity and fullness.
“We attract a lot of people who are curious,” said Rod Berglund of Joseph Swan Vineyards off River Road.
Berglund said he likes the idea of teaching people how to taste wine so they can learn to trust their own palates and choose wine for themselves, rather than rely on some expert or rating.
And he loves the questions he gets about chemistry and blending, Berglund said.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to get to know where wines come from,” he said.
More than 20,000 tasters from at least 46 states were expected to attend the event, which started Friday, runs through today, and then starts up again for three days next weekend, Wine Road Executive Director Beth Costa said. Tickets good for the whole weekend are $40.
“I truly think it’s a wonderful opportunity for education,” said Kathleen Inman, winemaker at Inman Family Wines at Piner and Olivet roads, where, for the first time, she was serving chardonnay — and not just the blended wine, but component juices fermenting separately in stainless steel and new oak barrels.
The idea was for tasters to experience the nutty flavors imparted by the oak and the crispness of the stainless steel-aged juice and understand how they eventually work together.
“You get to see the evolution of the wine and know what’s in the barrel,” Inman said.
Most wineries also sell “futures,” allowing tasters to stake a claim to wines they can pick up later this year or next spring at a significantly discounted price, in most cases.
The futures sales also ensure wine tasters return to the wineries they like, helping to build relationships between winery staffs and their customers that both sides enjoy.
“I know my favorite wines, favorite wineries. I know what vintages I like,” said San Francisco attorney Shalini Swaroop, 28, one of the more experienced tasters in a group of Bay Area women celebrating the coming nuptials of friend Ting Chen, 27.
Others in the group said they weren’t serious wine tasters, but enjoyed a chance to be out in fine weather, drinking good wine.
“We just thought it would be fun,” maid-of-honor Rachel Muchmore said.
“There are people who have been coming for 20 years or more,” said Costa, “and they come and they buy futures, and they buy futures to stock their cellars for the next year. It’s a really big wine-buying weekend.”
At Old World Winery in Fulton, winemaker Darak Trowbridge suggested barrel tasting fits right into the Slow Food/Community Supported Agriculture movement, where patrons get to see where their food comes from, know the farmers who grow their food and develop a connection to it.
“That’s exactly what this is about,” Trowbridge said.
And folks “get really excited when they learn something good comes from natural methods,” he said.
“What other industry, where else, does this happen?”
Bill & Sheila’s Wine
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