Premiere Napa Valley Barrel Tasting and Auction

So it is Saturday. Auction day.  The culmination of a weekend of partying, reconnecting, and making new connections.  Time to get down to the business of business.

We only had two tickets to the auction (tickets to this event are more tightly rationed than an invitation to the royal wedding) so @wineontheway and I were going to attend while the wives went off shopping.  We had neither of us been to this event before so Jack Bittner of Cliff Lede had agreed to meet us when we arrived at the Culinary Institute -- the site of the Barrel Tasting and auction -- to give us some pointers on maximizing the experience.  By the way, Jack is one of the nicest, and well-known, guys in Napa and, in addition, is one of the coolest dressers west of the Mississippi.  His style is "elegant nonchalance" and, invariably, consists of a perfectly fitted sports jacket over a nice shirt, a patterned hanky in the outside breast pocket of the jacket, blue jeans, fashionable shoes, and a hint of stubble on the face.  You go guy. 

The wives dropped us off at the Culinary Institute and drove off quickly for fear that we would change our minds and seek to accompany them on their shopping trip.  No chance.  The area around Greystone was a beehive of activity with people walking towards the facility from both directions; limos debouching bleary-eyed, ex-revelers into the cold morning air; the parking shuttle unloading its cargo of remote parkers in front of the building; and the valet parking attendants rushing back and forth to park the cars of those brave enough to actually drive to the locale.  We checked our coats and signed in on the lower level of the building upon which we were given a program and a bidders paddle with three large numbers emblazoned on the surface.

After signing in, we texted Jack to let him know that we were in the building and then made our way across the hall to the breakfast room.  Jack met us at the entrance to the breakfast area once we had completed our meal and then walked us up the stairs to the Barrel Tasting Hall on the second floor, all the while explaining how the tasting and auction processes worked.  As we were going up I saw Gary tight-lipped and with a pinched look on his face.  "Who is Gary?" you ask.  That was my question also when at every party that I attended people would point to a Ben-Stiller lookalike and say, in hushed tones. "There is Gary." I was mystified but, as the week wore on, I learned that he was a wine retailer from NJ (Gary's Wine and Marketplace) who had been the leading bidder at the auction for a number of years.  Well, he either had his game face on or his sphincter muscle was experiencing a severe case of over-contraction.

We stepped into the Barrel Tasting room and 200 opportunities to whet our palates -- with mostly Napa Cabs (74.5% of the Lots) -- stretched before us along three north-to-south corridirs as well as along the north and south walls.  Each of the wineries contributing lots had two or three of their top personnel pouring wines for the attendees.  The noise level was very high, with some stations packed three or four deep while other stations had staff patiently waiting for some attention to be paid to their offerings.  The tasting was scheduled to run from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm so we decided to ignore the lots that we had tasted at prior events (see preceding posts) in favor of "new" lots.  Even with this curtailed program, and being selective within that plan, we did not make it to the end of the line by the time the tasting was officially terminated.  New contacts, and reconnecting with old friends, were strong accompaniments to the actual tasting.  Plus, these wineries wanted to provide as much information as possible about their lots.  And each lot had a story to tell.  For example, Shafer Vineyards' offering was a 5-case Lot from its Sunspot Vineyard.  According to the PNV program, "Sunspot forms the backbone of Shafer's Hillside Select.  Here it stars solo in a quarter barrel (sic) lot from the 2000 vintage."



Tim Mondavi discussing Continuum Lot

 By the time we exited the tasting area, lunch was almost over.  Lunch was prepared by the students of the Institute and was served buffet-style between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm.  The selection on offer was wide and tasty and was accompanied by some phenomenal wines.  Kudos to the Culinary Institute and its students for a great job.

The Auction was well underway by the time we had completed lunch.  All of the available seating had been taken and latecomers were standing against the walls and at the rear of the room.  According to Napa Valley Vintners, 1000 people participated in the event, 500 vintner staffers and the remainder from the trades, media, and restaurants.  Lot sizes on offer were 5- (73%), 10- (15%), or 20-case (12%) lots deliverable in late 2011 or early 2012.  We took up positions at the rear of the room and watched as the two auctioneers tag-teamed the lots in rapid-fire succession.  As I surveyed the room, I saw a now-smiling Gary seated at the center of the room weilding a bidder's paddle with a large 1 on the surface.  The number 1 paddle signified that Gary had been the number one bidder in the preceding year.

According to Napa Valley Vintners, this was a recordbreaking auction.  Gross revenues of $2.366 million was was 23% higher than 2010 revenues and 5% higher than the previous record set in 2008.  Total cases auctioned in 2011 was 1530, 35 cases more than in 2010, leading to an average case price of $1546.  There were a total of 68 successful bidders, beating the record of 67 in 2006.  It should be pointed that the latter statistic shows only a 13% participation rate among potential bidders.  Gary was again the highest bidder, snagging 300 cases at a cost of about $500,000.  The highlight of the auction was the purchase of the Scarecrow 5-case lot for $125,000 by a Japanese businessman.  This price far surpassed the previous single-lot record of $80,000 set in 2007.  See @wineontheway's video of the bidding for the Scarecrow lot here.

This week was a memorable experience and I would like to thank @wineontheway for putting together a tight, meaningful program and Mrs@wineontheway for being such fun.  I would also like to thank Robin Lail (Lail Vineyards), Claude Blankiet (Blankiet Estate), Holly Anderson (Vineyard 29), Dana Johnson (Ovid), and Craig Camp (Cornerstone Cellars) for the personal experiences provided.  I would especially like to thank Jack Bittner (Cliff Lede) for his easy friendliness and Frank and Julie Husic (Husic Vineyards) for (once again) allowing us the run of their guest house during our stay in Napa.  And, finally, my wife for enabling me.

Premiere Napa Valley: Friday Events

According to Napa Valley Vintners, the 15th edition of its annual barrel auction, Premiere Napa Valley 2011 (PNV11), broke all previous purchase records.  There is no scientific data to support this, but I contend that the fantastic events preceding the auction served to put bidders in the requiste frame of mind to drive the bidding up to heretofore unattained levels on auction day.  In two previos posts I reported on our Wednesday and Thursday #PNV11 activities.  In this post I report on our activities on Friday, the day preceding the auction.

Our first event of the day was the Spotswoode PNV event held at the historic Victorian-era farm that houses the offices of Spottswoode Estate Vineyard and Winery.  Just as for some of the Pessac-Leognan vineyards in Bordeaux, the Spottswoode vineyards are tightly bound to residential portions of the town of St. Helena.  Walking through the vine-covered metal arch that serves as the entry into the property, and onto the walkway leading up to the farmhouse, one gets a sense more of Southern charm than Napa powerhouse.  Credentials were established on the farmhouse porch, after which a glass of Sauvignon Blanc (that varietal again) was proffered and we were ushered into the farmhouse and the reception.

The wines being poured that day were set up on a table to the right of the entry door and a buffet lunch was set up in the room beyond. 

The wines poured were, in order, 1997, 2001, 2008 Cabernet Sauvignons and the Premier Lot.  I was disappointed with the 1997 and tweeted thusly.  A short while after the tweet was sent, someone came over and asked "Are you wineORL?"  My wife and friends walked off hurriedly at this because they thought I had been "busted" for pooh poohing the wine and was going to be thrown out on my ear.  But not to worry.  It was only @TexasWineGuy.  He had also tasted the 1997 and had made a more positive observation on twitter.  We discussed our differeing opinions and, after he left, I retasted the wine.  I held my position.  We did not stay around too long after that.  My friends were rattled.

After a wonderful lunch at Farmstead Restaurant, we set off for our next event, Atelier Melka 2011 Premiere Napa Valley Lot Portfolio Tasting.  This event was being held at 750 Wines, a new boutique wine shop on Adams Street (St. Helena) that is owned by David and Monica Stevens.  The shop is set back from the street in a little courtyard and, as such, proved a little difficult to find.  The idea behind the event was to feature, in a single locale, all of the PNV lots of the wineries where Phillipe Melka was the consulting winemaker.  It was a perfect match: an avante-garde wineshop and the wines of a French-born Napa wine consultant.

Spouse and Phillipe Melka

The wines were distributed around the room in a haphazard circle.  There were steps leading from the ground floor (where the event was being held) to the upper level and these provided an excellent vantage point from which to gain an overarching view of the proceedings.

The wineries represented were Cliff Lede, Gemstone, Kristine Ashe, Lail, Moon-Tsai, ROY, Seavey, and Vineyard 29.  By the time we got there, the event was well underway.  We went first to greet old friends (Robin Lail of Lail Vineyards and Jack Bittner of Cliff Lede) after which we began to make the rounds.  I had extensive conversations with Chuck McMinn of Vineyard 29 (he had not been around on our visit to the estate) and Jeremy Weintraub, winemaker at one of my favorite Napa Cabs, Seavey.  We tasted through the wines lot by lot and I was impresseed with the Lail, Seavey, and Vineyard 29 offerings.  The atmosphere at the event was electric with a lot of people jammed into a tight space, all talking at the same time about variations on a single theme.  Attendees were close-up-and-personal with the top echelons of these wineries and their consulting winemaker.  Good stuff.

Robin Lail

Jack Bittner, VP and GM, Cliff Lede

Jeremy Weintraub, Seavey Winemaker

Our next stop was the Oakville Wine Growers Association event held in the caves at Far Niente.  This was a spectacularly executed event with wine and food stations distributed along the two north-south corridors, and the connecting arms, of the quarter-mile of caves that serve the winery.  With wines poured from leading lights such as Bond, Harlan, and Mondavi, and food from establishments such as Mustard's Grill and Brix, all in a delicately lit, underground environment, it was a wonderful night.

@wineontheway and Paul Roberts, Bond Estate Manager

Earlier in the day, I had received a tweet from @CornerstoneCellars asking me to come around to their tasting room in Yountville, as they would be there until 8:00 pm.  I indicated that we had a full day but would visit after we left the Oakville Growers event.  So after we left the Oakville event, we headed into Yountville in search of the Cornerstone tasting room.  When we got there, they were just wrapping up their #PNV11 event but when I mentioned that we had been invited over, staff let us in.  Soon after we arrived, @CraigCamp, General Manager and Managing Partner of the winery, and the person who had initially issued the invite, came out of the back office to welcome us.  This was a very pleasant visit.  Craig brought the winemaker over and, as the premises emptied of PNV revelers, we settled down into a warm, pleasant conversation about the winery, winemaking, and PNV, all the time tasting through the Cornerstone and SteppingStone (a moderately priced label within the Cornerstone firmament) offerings.  I had not had Cornerstone wines before and was very impressed with their Steppingstone Cabernet Franc and the Cornerstone Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon; so impressed, as a matter of fact, that I bought bottles of both wines and had them shipped home

In tomorrow's post I will report on the actual barrel tasting and auction.

#PNV11: Cliff Lede Vineyards "Bring your Own Bottle" Night

Napa Valley Vintners (NPA) annually invite vintners, wholesalers, retailers, and members of the press to a Barrel Tasting and Auction the main purpose of which is to raise funds for the association's activities but which also serves as a vehicle for facilitating meetings and social interaction between industry players in a locale that is valued by all concerned.  This year's edition of the event, Premiere Napa Valley 11, was held on February 24 -26 and included the Auction and Barrel Tasting, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon retrospective tastings, and vintner events distributed throughout the valley.  In yesterday's post I detailed our "private-tour" activities while in Napa for PNV11.  In this post I will discuss one of the vintner PNV events that we attended.

After leaving Ovid (the last of our private tours), we headed over to Cliff Lede Vineyards for that winery's "Bring your Bottle" event.  The event name belies reality in that each attendee had to send in his/her bottle to the organizers prior to the event.  In our case, @wineontheway had received an email asking if he was ready for the event and providing a list of the wines that had been submitted to date; they were all 100-pointers.  Not wanting to be party poopers, we fed-exed a bottle of 2007 Saxum Winery James Berry Vineyard Proprietary Red (100 points, Parker) and a bottle of 2000 Chateau Pavie (100 points, Parker).

It was raining (and cold) when we arrived at the valet stand so we grabbed umbrellas (knowingly made available at the stand by event organizers) and trudged up the hill to the reception area.  Once our credentials were validated, we were each given a glass of Sauvignon Blanc (becoming a ubiquitous drink in the Valley), and ushered through doors which led onto a catwalk which, in turn, fed into the stairs leading down to the vat room and the event.  Two things struck me as I stepped onto the catwalk: a large painting of the face of Grace Kelly (I later found out that it was done by the artist Tony Scherman and was part of the winery's 2010/2011 Gallery Collection.) and the space heaters distributed throughout the event area. 

White-robed, rectangular tables were strategically placed along the T-shaped area in the which the event would be held and on each table top stood an array of the finest wines in the world.  Each table was "manned" by one or two pourers.  And there, on the central table, in the company of Mouton, Chateauneuf du Pape, Leoville Las Cases, stood our wines.  We wandered over to the table and encouraged the attendant to open the Pavie.  This was like shouting gold in a panhandling zone as attendees flocked around to partake in the bounty.  The bottle was empty in a flash.  Oh well.  I guess I will just have to settle for Mouton.

The event was very well attended and the wines were fabulous.  Two food trucks had been positioned at one side of the building and wait staff plied between the trucks and the appreciative attendees, delivering bounteous goodness on each trip.  Cliff Lede was ever-present as was Jack Bittner, the Vice President and General Manager of Cliff Lede Vineyards (and an all-around nice guy.  We had dinner with him at Bouchon post the event.).


Cliff Lede and @wineontheway



I enjoyed this event thoroughly.  The food, the interaction, the wines, and the hospitality were all in harmony and was the perfect note as a lead-in to other "public" PNV11 activities.  Late in the evening we again ran into @thewinebarn, an Orlando retailer, and his group appeared to be having a good time.

In tomorrow's post I will cover the Friday events that we attended.