Wine lovers can taste wines housed in 59-gallon barrels at the barrel tasting Nov. 10 at Keels Creek Winery.

The event is part of the Eureka Springs Food & Wine Festival, set for Wednesday through Nov. 11 at locations around the city.

Doug Hausler, owner of Keels Creek Winery, says when they produce their wines, primarily their reds that are sourced from local grapes, they put them in oak barrels foraging. Their barrels are 59 gallons, although he notes that wine barrels typically range in size from 55-60 gallons. He says the aging process at the winery can range from one year to three or four years. For the event, they will also be offering a port wine, which is a fortified dessert wine.

Hausler says they will be doing a barrel tasting of some older wines ready to be bottled, a newly bottled port and younger ports that are still in process in the barrels. He says these will then be compared to the current harvest of wines.

The five or six winesavailable for tasting will be paired with cheeses and light hors d’oeuvres so people can get an idea of what would go with the various wines, Hausler says. He notes that the wine and food need to match in intensity of flavors and be complementary. He says a light wine would lose all of its flavor and characteristics if paired with a heavy steak, and if a bold, intense wine like a merlot was paired with a delicate fish such as a flounder, “youwould never taste the flounder because the wine is going to overpower your palette.” If a wine and food go well together, they will both enhance the impression of one another, he adds.

The event can accommodate about 30 people. Since it will be at the winery, Hausler says people will also get a chance to tour the winery and see the process the wines go through.

He says barrel tasting is aunique opportunity for people because “typically a winery would not open up the barrels for tasting to the general public.”

“It is an opportunity for people to see the process and how the wines change during the aging process,” he says.

Whats Up, Pages 16 on 11/02/2012