Barrel Tasting with tons of wineries, $10 for the whole event, including tasting. Will be fun to get a whole crew of exotics to carpool up there.

In Sonoma County, California

Details below:




This promises to be our biggest Barrel Tasting Weekend ever! With over 100 wineries opening their cellars for your tasting pleasure.
No Ticket Required! To taste, everyone must purchase our tasting glass and event wristband for $10.00 at the first winery they visit, each weekend. Lost, broken or misplaced glasses are $10.00 to replace.
Members of the Russian River Wine Road would like to welcome you to our wineries and lodgings for an exciting weekend of wine tasting. This is your chance to sample wines from the barrel, talk to winemakers and explore the beautiful Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys.
Many wineries offer “futures” on their barrel samples. This is a chance to purchase wine now, often at a discount, then come back to the winery when the wine is bottled, typically 12-18 months from now. Many wines are so limited, buying futures is your only chance to purchase them.
Help us, help the Redwood Empire Food Bank – $1 from each tasting glass sold is donated back to the Food Bank– together we can help fight hunger in Sonoma County.
Barrel Tasting is not at one location. You drive to the wineries you would like to visit. Below is a list of wineries that will be participating this year.
We will not produce a program that shows the specific wines each winery will offer for the two weekends - only this list of participants.


http://www.wineroad.com/events/barreltasting.asp

 

Would be a nice drive from OC. Looks like fun. I need to streatch out the new 335i.

 

I'm planning on going on the 3rd or 4th... anyone else interested?

 

I'm up for it; have to see if I can get away. I have a lot of business to get wrapped up in late Feb.

 

I like , need to get a glass now BRB

 

LOL. You can get the glass and wristband at the first winery we visit! If I can get a count of the number of people who wants to go and we get a good group going, I'll try to set up a fun route for us to drive and visit all the wineries. :-)

If anyone has personal connections to those wineries that'll be great too!

 

Large Map of area.

 

Most of my favorite wineries are located in Russian River, so I don't know where we will meet, but will be fun to first head over to several wineries in Russian River area.



Then spend the rest of the day in this fun town Healdsburg


and if we have time Dry Creek Valley



There is also amazing backroads that will take us from Russian River to Dry Creek, and we can drop by Healdsburg for an early supper.

Thoughts?

 

Wineries I recommend we visit:

1) Martinelli - very good reds
2) Joseph Swan - amazing Sarah and Pinot
3) Davis Bynum
4) J Vineyards - great champaign (big parking lot)
5) Rodney Strong - next door, good reds
6) Roshambo (really fun area)
7) Belvedere
8) Korbel
9) Everett Ridge
10) Quivira

Realistically we'll make it to about 4 or 5 of them in one day.

 

This sounds really fun. It could be a bit dangerous though after hitting all those wineries and driving...especially for me who is short on the alcohol enzyme...aka. "a cheap drunk"

 

Self control will be a good thing. Barrel tasting is a bit different since the wine isn't fully matured yet, so there won't be as much alcohol in it. Though you can also taste their bottled versions.

Hey, all you need is one designated driver that doesn't drink much, and the others can be plastered!

I do have a story though:

Two years ago at a similar event, I was driving out of Iron Horse winery on a 2 lane highway (in my S2000). An oncoming car ran into a telephone pole right in front of me. The power line fell across the road and landed one car length ahead of me. I was in the convertible and almost 1) got smashed by the telephone pole. 2) had the power line fall on top of my car. I was pretty glad to be alive, and my friend riding with me drank A LOT afterwards.

So the moral of the story is... control how much you drink if you drive

 

I"d be up for this....

 

will do this for sure...someone lets get a driving thing down...any socal peeps going

 

Ok, so far this is the I am going list:
1) Fayence
2) RRiva
3) Alex911s
4) FastFreddy
5) Damage
6) Me_qwkr
7) DimNSlow

 

when we all going? lets get a limo...