(PD) - Thousands of wine enthusiasts flocked to Sonoma County tasting rooms and wineries Saturday for the opening weekend of the Wine Road Barrel Tasting event, an annual rite that draws serious aficionados looking to spend hundreds of dollars to younger newbies attracted to a good time in the sun.

The two-weekend countywide affair, which started Friday and features 131 participating wineries, is estimated to bring in $3 million in wine sales, making for one of the best in-person sales periods for local wineries, said Beth Costa, executive director of the Wine Road, the event organizer. Up to 16,000 visitors are expected to take part in the festivities over this weekend and next. About a third of attendees come from out of state.

Amid the crush of tasting traffic, it takes a lot for vintners to capture attention. A typical tasting session involves sampling wine in barrels that are likely not to be bottled for another year at the earliest. Such small-lot barrels can be purchased as “futures,” often at a 25 percent discount. Most are packaged in a six- or 12-bottle set.

In an attempt to stand out from other wineries, Portalupi Wines in downtown Healdsburg gave customers the opportunity to bid on an entire barrel of barbera, a red Italian variety, made from 2014 Shake Ridge grapes and starting at $11,000. A barbera barrel from 2014 Pauli Ranch grapes started at $8,500. There were no takers for either as of Saturday afternoon.

Owner Jane Portalupi noted the wines in each barrel have been aging for four months, and a purchase would allow the customer to participate in the winemaking process with her husband, Tim Borges.

“They can actually partner with us all the way through now until bottling,” Portalupi said. “We are just having fun with it.”

Economic activity generated by the barrel tasting event extends to other businesses as well, as evidenced by all the limousines and luxury mini-buses that were shuttling attendees who paid $60 for a weekend ticket through the Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River valleys. Delicatessens also likely saw a jump in business as organizers urged customers to bring lunch, with some wineries not serving food.

Barrel tasting typically draws a diverse crowd of all ages, but most of the attendees on Saturday appeared to be millennials, typically those in their 20s or early to mid 30s.

That is good news for the industry as it aggressively courts a younger demographic that faces a much more diverse array of choices for alcoholic beverages, including craft beer, hard cider and a variety of distilled spirits.

According to the Wine Market Council trade group, 29 percent of the total wine drinking population consists of millennials (up to age 37), 18 percent are ages 38 to 49 and 41 percent are baby boomers, with those born in 1945 or earlier making up 12 percent.