Screaming Eagle vertical to headline at Naples auction

This year’s Naples Winter Wine Festival auction in Florida on 26 January will be headlined by a desirable lot of eight consecutive vintages of Screaming Eagle in double magnums.

Starting with Screaming Eagle’s first vintage, 1992, each year through to 1999 – made by winemaker Heidi Barrett and then-owner Jean Phillips, will go under the hammer.

The Florida festival and auction – one of America’s most sophisticated wine events – begins on Thursday 24 January, and concludes on Sunday 27 January.

Benefitting the Naples Children & Education Foundation, it has raised more than $176 million since its founding in 2001. The live auction will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.

“This rare vertical is poised to attract the attention of the wine collecting world,” said 2019 festival co-chair Tom Koehn of the Screaming Eagle lot, “which is why we are opening bidding to the wine collecting community at large. Having been owned by just one collector, the wine has impeccable provenance.”

Auction items are not limited to wines, and last year’s top lot bid was $780,000 for the world’s first 2018 Rolls Royce Phantom.

This year’s main Vintage Cellar event will be led by Véronique Drouhin Boss, winemaker at both her family’s Maison Joseph Drouhin in Beaune and its Domaine Drouhin in Oregon.

It will take place 24 January at the Bay Colony Gold Club. “There’s no better way to kick off one of the most exciting weekends of the year than with an once-in-a-lifetime tasting of vintages from two of the most iconic estates,” said festival co-chair Brian Brady.

The auction features both on-premise lot bidding and internet lot bidding. Interested bidders may contact info@napleswinefestival.com to apply for bidding access, and pre-qualified bidders may arrange to bid by phone in real time. The auctioneer will be London-based Humphrey Butler.

Ticket packages to the Naples Winter Wine Festival are limited to 600 guests and start at $12,500 per couple.