Wine Road Barrel Tasting
This weekend some I want barrel tasting in Sonoma County with some friends. Barrel tasting is where barrels are tapped before the wine has finished aging, usually somewhere between 6 months and 2.5 years after bottling, skewed more to the former. People can taste the wine early, and if they desire, purchase wine futures – the wine bottled, after aging is complete – at a discount.
We started off at Timber Creek Estate, which hosts tasting rooms for multiple wineries, as well as a local olive oil store. We tasted at the three wineries that had tastings on the weekend – Kokomo, Amphora and Papapietro (there was barrel tasting the previous weekend as well, with a different set of wineries). It started raining soon after we arrived, which pretty much set the pattern for the day, but it also likely helped to keep crowds at bay.
After we finished we headed to David Coffaro, where we were greeted with a tasty chicken and white bean cassoulet, as well as an incredibly cute and obviously underfed winery dog.
We visited a couple of more wineries, Bella, which has a fantastic cave
and Zichichi which has a cool name. By the time we were finished there it was 4pm, which was the end of the event. We headed back to San Francisco to have Chinese food in the Outer Richmond and calling it a day.