Hours for the three days of tasting are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The barrel tasting is Washington's first wine touring event of the year. The springtime atmosphere in one of the richest farming regions in the country gives city folks a chance to dust off the winter doldrums and get out in the country. Not only are there the wines, but also a wide variety of picnicking and dining opportunities and a chance to see the valley burst into bloom. Many of the other agriculture producers in the valley use the weekend to spotlight their products, including fresh asparagus and local cheeses.
Several wineries feature cuisines ranging from barbecue to seafoods.
Tucker Cellars, located right in the middle of the Yakima Valley near Sunnyside, has a long-standing partnership with Anthony's Homeport seafood restaurants of Seattle. Visitors during spring barrel weekend get their fill at Tucker of freshly barbecued salmon, ice prawns and oysters on the half-shell. Missing from the smiling faces serving wine at Tucker this barrel tasting weekend will be the patriarch of the family, Dean Tucker, who died Nov. 14. Winery often was delighted and astonished by all the people who would come to his establishment on barrel tasting weekend. Tucker and his family were at the first barrel tasting 19 years ago.