Napa barrel auction raises $6m

This past week marked the 19th Premiere Napa Valley Barrel Auction, scoring a record $6 million. Yet naturally one might wonder how these ‘New World’ wines would age. And would they truly retain their value as collectables?

Premiere Napa Valley chairs Emma Swain and Michael Scholz along with some of the St. Supéry team welcome trade guests to the barrel tasting at the Culinary Institute of America. Photo by Bob McClenahan for Napa Valley Vintners.

Premiere Napa Valley (PNV), a trade-only auction and barrel tasting, was the final event of “Premiere Week” which concluded last Saturday and featured numerous educational programs and professional tastings open to select sommeliers and fine wine writers. This year over 700 top trade and media guests traveled from eight countries and 30 different USA states to learn more about the very diverse Napa Valley appellations and have the opportunity to bid on 225 lots of rare wine, typically crafted in micro-lots of 60 bottles, with each bottle to be hand-numbered upon release.

The focus was also to showcase the quality and aging potential of Napa Valley wines and its place in every collector’s cellar. This was nicely exemplified in a session by Jancis Robinson MW, who led participants in a three-vintage tutored tasting of Cabernet Sauvignon from Louis Martini, Chimney Rock, Stags Leap, and Williams Hill, with the oldest from the mid-nineties and still holding strong.

One of the highlights of walking through the barrel tasting was the opportunity to chat with the winemakers about the special techniques they employed to make their PNV lots special, including specific blocks of vines, unusual clones, fermentation vessels such as the concrete egg, and collaborating in distinct ways with “celebrity winemakers.”

It was standing room only as soon as the auction began, the bidders representing retailers, restauranteurs, importers, and distributors, as well as buyers for country clubs. The auction book itself read like a “who’s who” of current Napa Valley royalty. Bidders frantically raised their paddles for Fairchild Napa Valley 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, coming from famed winemaker Philippe Melka with grapes grown in the prestigious Pritchard Hill Houyl and Perrarus Vineyards, which sold at $100,000.

Other top earning lots included BRAND Napa Valley; Chateau Boswell Winery; Gandona Estate; Shafer Vineyards; Pulido~Walker; Memento Mori; a collaboration between CONSTANT, David Arthur, Italics and Reynolds Family Winery; Silver Oak Cellars; and Rombauer Vineyards. These names are important because the PNV also signals which wineries and winemakers are currently in vogue.

Yet cutting edge winemakers, prestigious vineyards, and cult wine only partly tells the Premiere Napa Valley story. While it’s true that those bidding expressed their passion for high-end California wines and its place in their collection, many of the bids are also based on relationships buyers and producers have forged over the years. John Cogan Wade of the Arkansas-based Cliffewood Wine Syndicate explained their syndicate’s pre-emptive $50,000 bid on the 60 bottle lot of Chateau Boswell was based on the friendship they had enjoyed with the Boswell family for more than a decade. “We’ll probably split it up among our cellars,” he added, speaking of the syndicate’s dozen members. Many others in the audience, such as vivacious, high-bidding VJ Jazirvar, executive vice president of the Petroleum Club in Oklahoma, has been attending Premiere Napa Valley since the beginning. When asked why the auction is so important to him, Mr Jazirvar replied it’s because he and the club members only drink top California Cabernet wines. Another high bidder was Gary Fisch, owner of three wine shops in New Jersey, and a familiar figure at NPV as well as the highest bidder in previous years. Mr. Fisch explained that he doesn’t necessarily buy for his stores, but instead for a group of New York and New Jersey based private customers who pool their money and tell him what they’re interested in buying.

The Culinary Institute of America is home to the 2015 Barrel Tasting and Auction. Photo by Bob McClenahan for Napa Valley Vintners.

In addition to adding top Napa wine to their collections, another reason many bidders register is to attend the hospitality events leading up to the Premiere Napa Valley auction, in which potential bidders could taste both barrel and library samples. This year legendary vignerons such as John Shafer and veteran winemakers such as Robert Mondavi’s Genvieve Janssens were on hand (along with many others) to greet guests and answer questions in luxurious vineyard settings before the start of the frenzied auction.

2013 was a brilliant vintage year by all accounts, yet the last few years clearly put the Napa Valley in the spotlight. Tasting through the 225 lots during the barrel tasting and speaking with the winemakers, one sensed incredible passion and creativity as well as an accent on terroir one could almost literally taste. Calistoga and its bright red crunchy fruit? Rutherford and its chewy tannins? The rich intense flavors of Mount Veeder mountain grapes? Just a glance at the appellation written in the auction book was often enough to foretell what the wine would taste like. With the new trend for winemakers to practice more “non-intervention” techniques such as wild yeast fermentation at this level it is easier to “taste” terroir than ever.

Every year, the Napa Valley story gets stronger and stronger. Though Napa Valley fame may have only “officially” started with the Judgment of Paris nearly a half-century ago, today the Napa Valley is the darling of top sommeliers and collectors alike – and if both the flavor and auction results are to be trusted, the wine speaks for itself.