You mean well, I like your blog and industry contribututions, but this raises my hackles a tad, and I have to respond, as someone who closely covered the event, went 6 days, wrote a series of articles and interviewed dozens of happy attendees and wineries.

I work closely (and independently) with the Wine Road and Beth. Beth's upset comments Sunday night, in my opinion were frustration and exhaustion. She pointed out 99% of the 23k people (we don't know final #s yet, 19k pre sold) of the 125 wineries for 6 days. Its NOT 1%, its probably .05% of the people that walked in and out of wineries.

I am sorry to see this kind of recorded ending, as its simply NOT reflective of most of the experiences. If you are naive enough to visit Downtown Healdsburg at 2pm on Saturday, expect crowds. I was in Russian River interacting leisurely with the owner and a winemaker and no crowds. One simply needs to use intelligence.

I went ALL 6 days, and successfully found a very pleasant experience, and lack off crowds, and advised people who read how to avoid them.
I wrote a series of blog posts, with DOZENS of positive, enthusiastic comments. READ them:
http://www.simplehedonisms.com/archives/4322
http://www.simplehedonisms.com/archives/4495

I travel all over attending industry events on my own dollar and press passes. Wineries had the best hospitality I have witnessed. People were as well behaved as any other bracelet/passport event. This event deserves nothing but praise, instead of this.

Many wineries were open for the first time. MANY consumers bought futures for the first time. Stellar places like Siduri, Windsor Oaks, and others, not open to public, were. Barrel tasting isn't something you can just experience any time.

Stay away from this or, other events? Sure, thats an option, and a loss. As a writer and fairly well know/read n blogger up here
I can go to most wineries and get the direct audience, special pours etc, and I still found value. The average consumer can to.

And to you .05% asshats that marred the incredible positive energy, and upset one of the hardest working, vibrant AVA leaders in the industry, pray I never see you do this at one of these wineries. I'll be the one going to jail.

I started by stating I was not at the Barrel Tasting. William, who writes Simple Hedonisms Wine Blog and also wrote the comment above, was there. I read his posts on his blog, (as should you), about what the Barrel Tasting is all about, (and what it's not about). I have absolutely no doubt that most attendees of the Barrel Tasting weekend had the kind of experience that was advertised. As William says, it's " an excellent weekend to taste, learn and explore". Barrel tasting, the opportunity for buy futures and visit wineries that are otherwise not open to the public... that is a wino geek's wet dream, for sure.

I agree with William when he says you have to be intelligent to avoid the crowds. I would expect to find a crowd at 2pm on Saturday in downtown Healdsburg just as I would expect big crowds during a wrist band weekend on wine road. That is exactly why I said I weighed the Good and Evil and decided not to go to Barrel Tasting.

I had been thinking about tasting room etiquette for a few weeks and speaking with tasting room employees about it when I saw Beth's "Good vs. Evil" post. Yes, she was venting. I think anybody who read it knows that. I never meant to insinuate that the "Douchebag 1%" is indicative of the entire event. But it validated some of what I was feeling and is a key reason why I tend to avoid some ticketed weekend deals. But William was there and can tell us that it wasn't all overrun wineries and tasting rooms. I wasn't there, but I wanted to present the other side honestly. It matters. The Evil side really does prevent many people from attending these events. I wish and hope that the douchebags will begin to see they are not welcome.

thanks bro. Look forward to connecting at Rhone Rangers, and hope you will come visit/stay here in RRV so we can tour, taste together. Keep up the grat work.

I have to say, i've been to this before knowing NOTHING about the event or what it entailed. It took us two miserably crowded wineries near the starting/bracelet pick up spot to realize we had to get FAR AWAY from the crowds and the madness by driving to the furthest wineries participating.

Would we do it again? Maybe... Knowing that we should pick up our bracelets early and head as far as we can away from the crowds because it did save us a lot of tasting fees buying the bracelets.