A Barrel of Fun

In the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to taste a number of wines still in the barrel. Some of these wines have been in the barrel for a few weeks and others for several months or years. I never pass up an opportunity to sample wine this way and can even remember the very first time I tasted wine from the barrel years ago in California. To witness wine in the various stages of its journey into the bottle and to see how it evolves and changes seems not only miraculous to me but gives me a front row seat into the process of turning mere grape juice into fine wine!

Tasting wine still in the barrel and being able to advance that particular wine along in your mind to its potential at bottling, is not always easy. It is a bit like eating raw cookie dough and from that taste experience determining what the actual cookie will taste like! The best way to get a feeling for the direction a young wine is heading is to taste it while referencing your understanding of taste profiles in more mature wines. Knowing what will change and evolve and how that shapes every taste component as well as how the wine maker will be directing the wine needs to be considered. Some wineries sell “futures” which are orders of wine placed before the wine is finished and bottled. This is a great way to buy wine if you like to gamble. If the wine becomes a big award winner after bottling, the price the bottled wine can demand is often much more than the “futures” price you paid.

Vintage plays a huge role in wine quality. Tasting barrels from different vintages tells a different story. Most recently I have been sampling ‘08s and ‘09s. The overall consensus from experts on the growing season for the Umpqua Valley in 2008 was that after a late frost in April which was of initial concern the weather cooperated very nicely and 2008 wines will be of high quality. 2009 was an even better year in terms of a longer, warmer growing season and even with the bit of rain over Labor Day and Columbus Day 2009 looks to be a classic vintage! I have to say this is what my taste buds have been revealing to me as I barrel sample my way through some of my favorite wineries here in the Valley. After a difficult year in 2007 where the talent of the grape grower and the wine maker was put to the test, the 2009 season was a gift. Even the very young ‘09s I have had the chance to sample are showing beautiful fruit and complex layers. I have sampled several Syrahs and predict these wines will be big, bold and luscious. I have great expectations for the whites as well.

Having the experience of tasting wines still in the barrel is something I would hope everyone with an interest in wine will experience. Many of my tour clients have never had the opportunity to sample wine from the barrel before touring with me. Some have never been into a barrel room before. There is no doubt a barrel room visit and barrel sample changes peoples understanding of the connection from fruit on the vine to wine in the bottle.