Noted some wine publications list "barrel" tastings for some unreleased wines.
I envision one way to do it thus: critic goes to the winery, siphons off some wine from a barrel, puts in a bottle, slapped on a hand-written label, corks the bottle and takes it back to headquarters, where it is then commingled blindly with the tasting lot.
Or is it that the wineries submit samples indicating them to be "barrel" material? Anybody knows the actual mechanics?
-- ================================================Do you like wine? Do you live in South Florida? Visit the MIAMI WINE TASTERS group at
The public barrel tastings I have attended were as Joseph Coulter describes. And they are sales and/or social events -- not intended for serious evaluation of the wine. A winemaker may frequently taste from barrels to check the progress of the wines, but I don't think that is what you are asking about. I suppose a bulk wine buyer might taste wine from barrels for evaluation purposes.
Normally, the barrel tastings are done in the cellars/cave of the winery. In the case of Mr. RMP, it does bear some inspection, since IIRC he claims that all of his tastings are done blind, in flights of similar wines.
le/on Sat, 25 Mar 2006 21:45:17 GMT, tu disais/you said:-
I am not a reviewer for any major publication (or minor one for that matter), so can't say how that happens. However I've very often tasted barrels samples on my visits to wineries. One of the most interesting was in Oregon, where we were lucky enough to be received by Jack Rovic of Panther Creek winery, and were shown the influences of different Pinot Noir clones and different oaks on their wines. I suppose we must have tasted something like twenty different barrel samples.
I remember a similarly educational tasting in Ch. Tour des Gendres in Bergerac, where Luc de Conti was discussing - with barrel tastings - the difference that different kinds of limestone sub soil gave to the wines made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape.
In both these cases, as in all others I've attended, the barrel was opened, a sample taken with a wine thief, and poured into our glasses (as well as the owner's) for us to taste. We then carried out our tasting, obviously spitting the wines.
However, as I understand it, when, say, the "Revue des Vins de France" wants to taste the current range of sweet wines from the South West, they contact the owners asking them to send tasting samples and so those that wish to take part will take samples and put them into a 1/2 bottle, cork it and send it. The most scrupulous will take care that they take a representative selection of several barrels so that what will be tasted with bear some relationship to what will be bottled eventually. Others will no doubt take the gamble of selecting a good barrel from which to pull samples. while they may get good reviews in the short term, in the long term that kind of sharp practice gets them a filthy reputation.
I have no idea of how the tasting itself takes place. Presumably that will depend upon each organisation and how many are participating.
I think that there are at least two kind of barrel tasting's. One, as described by the people below is more or less a testing of a work in process of unblended wines. either many barrels of the same blend, but a bit unique. In some wineries, these may be individually tested, some rejected( second wine) and the balance usually mixed together to make the final wine. In other cases, the wine in various barrels is from different locations(find Shea in OR, and Shea Stadium), or different varsities, and the "final blend" is a mix of the various varsities(J. Phelps insignia).
A second kind of barrel sample tasting, which is what I have done most is: bottles are pulled and labeled, then shipped to Wash DC(where I live), and opened and sampled here. The wine has a very short life. it is almost always of the final blend.
The most famous of these tasting's in our area is the Addie Bassin Tasting, which will come up in a couple of weeks.
formatting link
These are the wines that Parker tastes to generate his CA Cab report. He does not go to CA to taste most of the wines in that report. Most of the wines come from that tasting, and he has a private tasting the day before or the day after. I have never seen him at that event, although I have seen rogavani there.
There are a couple of other charity tastings that Macarther sponsors that include Parker. The wines in those events usually end up in Parkers reports.
These guys do not travel 100,000 miles a year to taste wines.
I have purchased a number of burgundies from barrel samples(tasted >
Michael, My comment regards the statement that appears on the front cover of every issue of WA: "When possible, all wines are tasted in single-blind format..." Clearly, he doesn't feel that it's possible to do barrel tastings in a single-blind format (and I concur), but there's nothing in his cover statement that lets the reader know that barrel tastings are exempted from his rule.
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.