Sonoma County Barrel Tasting

This year I got in on a really awesome event! Each year Erica and Jason Klafter put together a group wine tasting plan that coincides with the Sonoma County Barrel Tasting. They rent a van large enough to hold their friends and family and everyone splits the cost. The driving is shared between Jason and Helmut. The rest of us follow the map of the places Erica and Jason have scoped out for us and off we go; barrel tasting wines throughout Sonoma County!
The event is for one of two weekends starting on Friday and continuing Saturday & Sunday. So Friday I took the afternoon off work and met up with Jason, Erica and their family in Healdsburg. I picked up my wine glass at Williamson where Jason met me. We headed over to La Crema Winery where they were pairing their wines with chocolate.

Then I headed over to Thumbprint where they were having a "name the new wine" event. I voted for "Afterglow", it seemed to best match the wine.

The next day was the start of the big group event. Emily and I headed over to the Klafter's home and we piled into the van. A quick stop at the grocery store for our picnic lunch and we were off! Here's a picture of me and Emily at one of our stops.

They barrel taste in various locations. Sometimes out front of the tasting room like this one.

Sometimes they barrel taste right in the cellar. These cellars were deep and had various paths under the mountain, really cool!

At old world winery I tasted a very delicious and extremely unique wine made from the Aboriou grape. It's called Aborious. I decided; it would be my first "Futures" purchase. Futures are the purpose of the barrel tasting weekend. Customers get to taste what is currently being made and if you like it you can order the "Futures" and often times get a better price for doing so. I'm very excited to taste it when it's available this August.

None of us got away this weekend without buying something!

Barrel tasting weekend is a major event here in Sonoma County; I hope I can do this every year!