Whether you’re a novice or sommelier, tasting wine straight from the barrel is an exhilarating experience for all. It’s magical to watch someone pull the plug from the bung hole of a French oak barrel, dip the glass wine thief in and extract a taste of the developing wine. The wine will be young and a bit too chilled, given its days spent in the wine cave, but you get a good idea of what’s on the horizon for new wine releases.

During a recent Grand Barrel Party event held in the medieval cave/12,000-square-foot barrel cellar three levels beneath Calistoga’s Castello di Amorosa, all but one of the barrel tastings were 2017 and 2018 vintages that aren’t scheduled for release until 2020.

Director of Winemaking, Brooks Painter (he received the Andre Tchelistcheff Winemaker of the Year award from the San Francisco International Wine Competition), along with Winemaker, Peter Velleno (formerly of William Hill Winery and Hartwell Vineyards), offered tastes and commentary on several of the 19 wine barrels, including a Chardonnay and a Merlot, several Pinot Noirs and both single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons and Cab-based blends.

One of the most notable wines tasted during the event was a 2016 Trenta Cabernet Sauvignon, a new project to the winemaking team and one that Velleno considers “big, bold-style cabernet”. The six barrels holding this wine were aged in 100 percent new French oak for 30 months, which is one more year than the usual reserve wines at the Castello. The grapes for this wine were all grown in the Napa Valley and are 97 percent cabernet sauvignon and 3 percent merlot. The vineyards harvested include Rapp Ranch, Coombsville; Morisoli, Rutherford Bench; Perata, Yountville, and Melanson, Pritchard Hill.

“You’re tasting wines directly out of the barrel. It will be another two to three years before you can try it again,” Velleno said. He encouraged guests to purchase futures to pay less than the release price for the wines.

Buying futures is not unusual for wine collectors who would like to reduce the cost of wine purchases. If you purchase a case of futures that sells at $660 a case, for instance, you can get a futures price of $528.

It’s worth noting that Castello di Amorosa sells its wines directly to consumers, so if you’re there and love what you taste in the barrel, futures are a good way to stock up on wines you wouldn’t normally access.

When our group tasted the reserve, single-vineyard 2017 Morisoli-Borges Cabernet Sauvignon, made from grapes grown in the heart of the Rutherford Bench, we all thought that this wine is nearly perfect as it is. Painter and Velleno purchased three tons of Cabernet Sauvignon from Mike Morisoli, whose parents bought the vineyard in 1971. According to the tasting notes, much of the vineyard was planted to Cabernet Sauvignon in the late 1980s with a smaller area redeveloped in 2006. The wine “comes from a blend of these old and young blocks and it expresses the Rutherford appellation’s famous ‘dust’ character with its unique, soft, silky tannins.”

When released, the wine will sell for $145 a bottle or $1,740 a case. The futures price was $1,392 a case and $33,408 for a barrel.

As Painter, Velleno and guests stood in the 12,000-square-foot barrel cellar, Painter said the barrel cellar is the same size as the winery that owner Dario Sattui originally decided to build. Instead, after 15 years, the winery is 136,000 square feet with 107 rooms and seven levels.

Along with grapes from the estate’s 35 acres, today the winery sources grapes from several of its Sonoma County vineyards, including 13 acres in Anderson Valley, 13 acres in Philo and a new 80-acre property in Anderson Valley, between Philo and Boonville.