You’ve done the wine tours and counter tastings, but, until you’ve barrel tasted, you haven’t really lived. Barrel tasting is when a winemaker opens up his or her barrels and samples wines that are aging for the consumer. This takes place during the secondary fermentation, when the wine is being aged in barrels — before wine ever makes it into the bottle. Normally, a consumer’s first taste of any given wine is the finished product. Barrel tasting gives you not only a sneak peek into what’s to come, but also a unique chance to meet the winemaker, lock in futures, and gain a whole new perspective on the winemaking process.