On Saturday, April 27, thirty eager wine consumers walked into the cellar at 2Hawk Vineyard and Winery, where winemaker Kiley Evans and Vince Vidrine, winemaker at Irvine & Roberts Vineyards, were preparing to teach a class. The doors to the barrel cellar were open and the woody scent of oak barrels was ever-present, along with the fresh, clean smell of wet cement.

“This is an opportunity to look at some of the tools winemakers use when we’re constructing blends,” Vidrine said as he presented samples of three different Chardonnays from Irvine & Roberts Vineyards. The first two Chardonnays were from the same vineyard block and had been fermented and aged in different vessels: one brand-new French oak barrel, the other a barrel that had been used once before.

The class, called The Art of Barrel Tasting, aimed to demystify the practice of tasting wine while it’s still maturing in oak barrels. The challenge, Evans says, is “to extrapolate what’s going to happen to the wine as it changes and ages in barrel.” Vidrine echoes Evans’s point: “As winemakers, we’re always thinking about how this wine will feel in the future…what will it smell and taste like.”

After tasting the Chardonnay from the new French oak barrel, one surprised guest raised his hand. “So, the only difference between these two wines is that one is a one-year-old barrel and one is a new barrel?”

“That’s correct,” Vidrine replied.

“Wow. That’s a significant difference.”

The Art of Barrel Tasting on the Anchor Series of the Oregon Wine University® was organized in conjunction with the Oregon Wine Experience®, to educate interested wine enthusiasts and to prepare guests to bid on wine futures at the Founder’s Barrel Auction, which will be held this year on Friday, August 23. Participating wineries across Oregon donate between a half and a whole barrel of wine—wines that are still going through the aging process—to be auctioned off in lots of one case or more. Potential buyers can taste the wines before they bid, and all proceeds go to benefit the Asante Foundation and the Children’s Miracle Network.

Evans began to walk the class through his barrel selections: three Malbecs from 2017 and two from 2018. “When tasting, I’m trying to get behind the oak,” he said. “My goal is to achieve a wine where the oak frames the wine from the background, like the canvas of the painting.”

While Evans introduced his third wine, a Malbec aged in a new oak barrel made by a different cooper, a guest had another question. “Will all three of these wines be bottled and marketed separately?”

Not usually, the winemakers explained. In most cases, many barrels are combined into a single blend and are bottled as one wine, whether as that winery’s entry-level wine or their reserve offerings. “But,” Evans continued, “that’s exactly what we do for Oregon Wine Experience®. We select a single barrel that represents the best of what we’re doing, and that’s what you’re bidding on at the Barrel Auction.”

The opportunity to taste and purchase wines from these barrel selections long before they’re bottled doesn’t come along often. Barrel tastings are often limited to trade only, as unfinished wine—wine that hasn’t yet been bottled and released to consumers—can taste quite different from polished wine for sale at tasting rooms and wine shops. A barrel selection donated to the Oregon Wine Experience® is often selected from a winery’s best vineyard blocks and blended especially for the Founder’s Barrel Auction, making for a unique offering that’s available nowhere else.

“It’s a unicorn wine,” says Andrew Wenzl of Abacela Winery, of the blend he creates for the Founder’s Barrel Auction. “It doesn’t exist except in the cellar of maybe ten people.”

As the Oregon Wine Experience® grows, wineries from outside of Southern Oregon are joining the cause. New contributions to the Founder’s Barrel Auction this year come from Archery Summit, Left Coast Estate, Authentique Wine Cellars, and Laurel Ridge Winery. They join the likes of Dave Grooters from Carlton Cellars, who has long admired the approach Oregon winemakers take to industry and regional growth: “It’s always been very collaborative. I think Oregon winemakers recognize that all these boats are going to rise with the tide.”

The attendees at the Art of Barrel Tasting class asked plenty of questions, and Evans and Vidrine answered as many as possible. Jesse Brons, grandson of Cal and Judy Schmidt, who own Schmidt Family Vineyards, attended the class with his wife Kelli. Jesse is getting involved in the family business and has been out on the tractor and in the cellar regularly. “We love the Oregon Wine Experience®, and we plan to go again this year,” Jesse said. When asked what they’d learned at the class, Jesse said, “The biggest thing was understanding the impact of neutral versus new oak.” Kelli had her own perspective: “It’s great to learn how every winemaker’s style is so refined and artistic. It’s special to see how unique they all are.”

©Southern Oregon Wine Scene – from the Summer 2019 issue