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Barrel Tastings
Wine is tasted out of the barrel frequently as it ages to determine the best time to bottle the wine. Many wineries now offer visitors the chance to experience wine the way the vintners do.
You can expect a raw, unfinished product in many cases, but if you also purchase the finished product, you can learn about how the wine develops. Most people don't get the opportunity to experience wine in this way, so it can be a special event.
There are several variations on the barrel tasting theme:
- barrel verticals: when different vintages of the same wine are taken from barrels
- barrel components: different components of an established final wine blend are sampled from barrels
- different vineyard designates of the same wine varietal from the same winery are sampled from barrels
- special barrels of wine (for example, an obscure varietal, or a winemaking experiment), that are not made in large enough quantities to ever be released or distributed
- comparison of the exact same wine made differently (French vs. American oak, one-year oak vs. two-year oak)
