(PD) - Stormy weather and renewed efforts to discourage drunks and rowdies are keeping the crowds thin at this year’s Wine Road barrel tasting event.

And organizers say that helps participating wineries pay more attention to the serious buyers who come to taste wines that are still in the barrels.

As the 39th annual event gears up for its second of two weekends, Beth Costa, executive director of the Wine Road trade organization, estimates this year’s attendance will be 12,000, down 3,000 from last year’s total. She attributes the decrease to the rain and to changes first made three years ago, including higher ticket prices and efforts to discourage participants interested in getting drunk.

Once a more low-key affair catering mostly to buyers looking for a sneak peek at yet-to-be-bottled vintages, the event grew over the years to include van loads of drinkers with less discriminating tastes and a desire to party. In 2012, the event drew an estimated 20,000 people to wineries in the Dry Creek, Alexander and Russian River valleys and generated complaints about rowdiness and public drunkenness.

The next year, higher at-door ticket prices and a ban on buses carrying more than 24 riders were imposed as ways to cut down on the party atmosphere.

Among other measures, organizers have also hired security guards to patrol the Healdsburg Plaza and paid the California Highway Patrol for increased coverage of the three valleys during the event.

Healdsburg police reported no arrests or incidents from overzealous drinking connected to last weekend’s barrel tasting.

Attendees come from many states, including one she met this year who was in his 37th year, Costa said. Large numbers come from Florida, Texas, Illinois, Washington and Oregon, but up to 70 percent come from California, nearly half of them from the Bay Area.