Why Sonoma County’s Wine Road Barrel Tasting is a spring rite of passage

In Sonoma County people are immersed in a culture where wine is everyone’s favorite subject. People are quick to talk about the hottest wineries and their prized bottlings whether they’re on a date, at the doctor’s office or in an elevator.

Tyler Cella, 27, grew up in what he said feels like one long-standing conversation about wine. It’s not surprising he’s leading a pack of his friends to experience the Wine Road Barrel Tasting next Saturday.

The 42 annual tasting began this weekend despite recent rain and flooding, and will continue next weekend, March 8-10, with wineries open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Tickets at the door are $70 for the weekend, $60 for Sunday only and $10 designated drivers. wineroad.com

“The tasting is a lot of fun and it’s jam-packed,” Cella said. “It’s Sonoma County’s version of welcoming spring. It’s like Groundhog Day but with wine.”

Cella’s tribe ranges in age between 23 and 27 and he said the tasting is a big draw, one of the most popular among millennials. He’s playing tour guide for his girlfriend, Victoria Ramia, and two other couples, and he has been working up an itinerary. It includes these wineries - Dashe Cellars, Ferrari Carano, Wilson Winery and Mazzocco Winery.

“That’s all I have on our plate so far,” he said. “I’m still working on the logistics, but we all like zinfandel so the plan is to go to Dry Creek Road in the Healdsburg area.”

Cella is taking the lead because he knows the most about the backroads of Sonoma County. Before he became a financial representative for San Francisco’s Northwestern Mutual, he worked in the wine department of Oliver’s on Montecito in Santa Rosa. He also sold beer for San Francisco’s Artisan Distributing for about eight months before delving into the world of financial planning.

While Cella said he’s not planning a spending spree at the tasting, he doesn’t have a set budget.

Most of the excitement at the barrel tasting is about investing in “futures” - bottlings that will typically be ready for the market in 12 to 18 months. These futures often come with discounts.

“If the price is reasonable, I’d like to jump on the opportunity,” Cella said. “It all depends on how good the wine is. If a bottle is over $40, I become a little more critical.”

But tasting the wine is only part of the adventure for Cella.

“I like to learn how the wine is made, but I’m more interested in the actual winery in terms of history,” he said.

What’s his favorite winery?

“That’s a loaded question,” Cella said with a laugh.

Among the 7,000 people expected at the tasting over two weekends, there will be plenty of curious millennials like Cella. But there’s no way to quantify this population of younger drinkers because the Wine Road, the organization that puts on the tasting, doesn’t track guests by age.

Regardless of the ages of its fans, the event has evolved over the past decade according to Beth Costa, executive director of the Wine Road.

“There was a time when this event was free, and then it was $10 … but those days are long gone,” Costa said. “With a $50 advance ticket and $70 at the door, people buying tickets are genuinely interested in wine.”

Costa said organizers routinely hire two California Highway Patrol officers for all Wine Road events as a preventative measure.

“There have been groups of people who drank too much,” in the past she said. “That is an ongoing issue at any wine event, managing the crowd so people do not over indulge. People need to take personal responsibility for their actions. We encourage guests to drink more water, bring snacks, limit their tastes and use the dump buckets.”

Costa said the checks are in place and she doesn’t expect there to be any issues.

“It’s disheartening when people try to paint this event as a party,” she said. “It is not. The visitors that fly out here year after year, pay for hotels, hire transportation, book dinner reservations, buy wine, join wine clubs, and order futures … we work all year to bring those folks here. They are spending thousands of dollars to attend this event and buy wine.”

Organizers say the geographic reach of visitors covers the entire country with them streaming in from all 50 states.

“Barrel tasting is a time-honored tradition in the wine industry,” Costa said. “Tasting wine still in the barrel is something normally set aside for winemakers. During these two weekends, visitors from across the country have the opportunity to get into the cellar and talk with winemakers about how the wine will evolve with more time in the barrel.”

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.