Premiere Napa auction raises $5m

Premiere Napa Valley, the annual auction of uniquely-made barrel lots of Napa wines, raised US$5 million – a million dollars less than last year’s record but still the third highest total in the auction’s 20-year history, Adam Lechmere reports.

Doug Shafer welcomes everyone to the 2016 Premiere Napa Valley auction (Photo: Bob McClenahan)

There were highs and lows in a sale that had auctioneers David Elswood of Christie’s and Fritz Hatton working the room with motor-mouthed energy. “I’m not getting enough shout-outs here,” Hatton said at one stage. The highest price paid was $130,000 for 60 bottles.

Some winemakers and attendees expressed surprise at some of the prices fetched. “Bidding did seem conservative,” consultant and former Clos du Val winemaker Kristy Melton said.

But there was no shortage of noisy and enthusiastic bidding for the most popular wines, in the packed room at the historic Culinary Institute of America in St Helena.

Of the 226 lots sold, 199 were from the acclaimed 2014 vintage, the vast majority Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends, with a handful of Pinot Noirs, Merlots and white wines from varieties as diverse as Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Chenin Blanc.

Auction rules call for a minimum of 60 bottles and a maximum of 240. The wines are highly collectible; the bottles – when they are delivered – will be individually signed by winemakers. The pre-auction tasting was dotted with Napa aristocracy such as the 91-year-old John Shafer, who poured his 60-bottle lot from the Sunspot vineyard.

The top lots were Coombsville’s Italics Winegrowers, Memento Mori from St Helena, and Nine Suns of  Pritchard Hill, which fetched $130,000 each, while Realm Cellars and Rombauer went for $75,000 each. Memento Mori is a perennial high earner, while this was the first year for Nine Suns, made by Sam Kaplan on Pritchard Hill. The wine comes from the celebrated Houyi vineyard, also a component in Realm’s offering.

The audience of wine professionals – retailers, restaurateurs, wholesalers, distributors, brokers and importers – primed by a morning of tasting the hundreds of wines on offer, greeted the lots of popular winemakers such as Andy Erickson with whistles and claps. His Arietta Bordeaux blend went for $38,000.

The auction catalogue is a roll call of Napa’s most celebrated winemakers and consultants, from the ubiquitous Philippe Melka, whose name appears on eight wines, Aaron Pott, Steve Matthiasson, Cathy Corison, Chris Howell of Cain, to Mike Grgich, the veteran former Beringer winemaker Ed Sbragia, Heidi Barrett, Tim Mondavi, and the up-and-coming Julien Fayard, who champions the southern appellation of Coombsville and has a growing list of consultancies.

Realm’s managing partner Scott Becker told the drinks business the chief value of the auction is the raising of awareness. “We’d like to position Napa Valley alongside Bordeaux in terms of international reputation. Realm doesn’t have any recognition in the UK for example, and this certainly helps.”

The Barrel Room at the Culinary Institute of America packed with the wine trade tasting Premiere Napa Valley wines (Photo: Bob McClenahan)

Melton, who now consults at St Helena’s Varozza among others, said the auction was invaluable for connecting with buyers. “They discover things that they would never normally see.”

She also stressed how much the profile of wineries at the auction has changed over the last six years. “It’s a dramatic change. There are now many more small producers.”

Julie Lumgair, winemaker at Oak Knoll’s Ideology Cellars, said of the $16,000 paid by the giant supermarket Safeway for their 60 bottles of Cabernet, “It’s only my second year at Premiere and I couldn’t be more pleased.” Safeway’s Jim Blumling, who bought the wine, said he was “thrilled”.

A feature of Premiere Napa Valley is the increasing attendance of buyers’ syndicates such as the Cliffewood Wine Syndicate of Arkansas, and the Petroleum Club of Oklahoma, “an organisation with very deep pockets indeed,” as one winemaker said with approval.

The twenty-or-so members of Cliffewood also have deep pockets, successfully bidding for 11 lots, including Italics Winegrowers Cabernet, Nine Suns and Realm Cellars. Little Rock, Arkansas attorney John C Wade told the drinks business that the syndicate bought for their personal cellars.

“We like small production wineries. When you already have a collection of a winery like Realm it’s great to add the auction lot to your cellar. No one else will have it, and it’s an honour to pay tribute to such an excellent winery.”

Profits from Premiere Napa Valley, which was founded in 1997, go to Napa Valley Vintners, a non-profit organisation representing Napa Vintners. Auction Napa Valley, held in June, benefits Napa County charities.