Russian River Barrel Tasting Weekend

Well another wine "cattle call" occured over the weekend. The 28th Annual Barrel Tasting Weekend in Sonoma County.

I add this event to the usual list of suspect events; the Family Winemakers of California at Fort Mason, the Zap Festival in the same location, the Holiday in Carneros, in, well, Carneros (check the link, you neophyte!), as well as weekends spent tooling around Napa's Silverado Trail, downtown Napa, Sonoma, and on and on.

I forgot my shoulder pads. And cup. Ah, the joys of packed wine tasting rooms, wine thiefs being dunked into barrels filled with fermented grape juice not yet ready for prime time, by purple fingered persons with no connection to the winery other than that of possibly birth or marriage.

The wonder of tartness, they endlessly call "pre-release", its chewy goodness staining my teeth and receeding my gums. Platters of food as poorly matched as dark chocolate with what could have been a nice syrah. The bitterness of the chocolate a sharp counterpoint to the wine. Cheese slapped willie-nillie around the room, like orphans looking desperately for a home, and meatballs mantained by the meatball attendant, insuring that the sweaty, poor homeless of Healdsburg don't make a meal. If I could have gotten to the wine counter while eating my meatball, it may have helped.

The up side was the stunning number of women, dressed-up, pushed-up, and made-up, with diamonds the size of, well, grapes, adorning the beautifully nailed fingers of these wealthy wine drinkers. Did I mention the cleavage? Oh Boy!

I do have some memory of the event actually other than that previously mentioned, however. I visited Rosenblum Cellars, (too many people in too small a space), Thumbprint Cellars, (biodynamic, and vegan !?) Mauritson Family Winery, (some nice but not outstanding wines), Siduri, (jam packed home of some very good Pinot, and under the Novy lable, syrah, blends and zin, and a newborn baby!!). I may have made it to several more I can't remember. But who cares, really?

Did I buy any futures? Nope. Current wine? Nope. Sorry guys. Too short a time, in too big an area. I suspect the right day to have gone would have been Friday. But I work for a living. (Damn!)

I did enjoy chatting with people, seeing the scenery, visiting the wineries and testing my aim at spitting. But would I go again. Probably not. Most of the wineries are open for tasting the rest of the year. Any other day, during the week, is the time to go. Also in Winter. On a rainy day.

Where's my cork screw? I gotta go open something good.