V. Sattui Barrel Tasting Party
Went to the V. Sattui Barrel Tasting party Saturday January 30th. It was a great evening of wine tasting and food.
The opportunity to buy tickets for this and their other events is one of the reasons we became members, so I was very excited and looking forward to the experience.
The event started at 6 PM and we arrived around 6:10/6:15. The party was in full swing and it was crowded in the cellar area. Surprisingly, it cleared out quite a bit by 8 PM.
The Hawaiian Food Station
The food:
The food was good. My favorite was the mac and cheese bites, which were not too greasy and featured a cheese fondue dipping sauce that put it over the top. The lasagna was delicious, too. Other than that, nothing really special, but everything was nice and there was something for everyone.
The wine:
There were three tasting areas. In the main tasting room…in the Vittorio tasting room…in the cellar
When you look at the list of wines they tasted, there were a lot of cabs and zins.
Some of the MANY Barrels available for tasting
I ended up tasting a lot of the wines I would taste on a regular visit, which isn’t a bad thing, but probably not worth the price of admission (I’ll talk more about this later).
I guess for members who are serious about buying futures, the event might be a “good deal”, as you can buy bottles at a discount, though you have to purchase by the case.
We ended up buying a couple of bottles of a wine we hadn’t tasted before and a couple of our favorite standby.
What I liked:
It was fun to taste things we wouldn’t normally have access to.
What I didn’t like:
Sediment in the tasting flight that required a ticket was quite off-putting and gave one of the members of our party a bit of an upset stomach. Also, we had to go to another part of the room just to get some water to rinse our glasses. Would’ve been nice if there was a pitcher of water on the bar for that.
Overall:
Between the wine, unique barrel tasting experience, food, music and ambiance–the V. Sattui Barrel Tasting Party was a special event, well done, and very enjoyable. Not sure if the sum of the parts justify the time and price tag, though.
It’s a pricey ticket. $95 for members and $105 for guests.
Hard to say if I feel like I got my money’s worth.
For a couple, it’ll set you back $190. $190 is substantially more than a nice dinner out. But you say, “Didn’t you taste a lot of great wine?” I did, but really how much wine can you drink (and remember it)? And that $190 would’ve paid for 9.5 tastings at $20 a pop. Yeah, I know, we tasted some fancy wines, that I don’t know if you can even get outside of this event, and there was food…
3.5/5 Wine Glasses
Even better than this party was the V. Sattui Lobsterfest!
