![]() ![]() ![]() This year’s event was a marked contrast to last year’s, which came hard on the heels of the recession. ![]() I attend every year for these insights, along with the fantastic food and laid-back camaraderie that accompanies the event. A broad sense of the qualities of a particular vintage - in this case, 2008 A gauge of the quality of wine that a large number of Napa producers can make when they really tryģ. The measure of demand strength for the luxury end of the Napa wine industryĢ. Many of the lots are spoken for well before the gavel falls - purchased by wine retailers and brokers who essentially take orders (and bundles of cash) from their best customers, and then show up to invest, as if they are managing a wine hedge fund.įor the rest of us, apart from offering a ringside view on the uppermost echelon of California wine buying, the Premiere Napa Valley auction provides three main insights:ġ. The event web site lists the buyer of each lot and their contact information if anyone really is interested in finding one of these wines. When the 5 cases of Shafer Sunspot Vineyard Cabernet that sold for $37,000 last Saturday eventually get sold, I shudder to think what the price per bottle will be. Some of these wines can actually be purchased by the public, though they require persistence to track down, plus a cavalier attitude towards the price of wine. So what’s the good in me tasting wines that neither you nor I will ever get a chance to taste again, let alone purchase one day? As I swoon over some of these wines, I often ask myself the same question. No matter what their composition, each auction lot must be a unique wine that will never be available anywhere else, and implicitly, it must be as good as possible, to ultimately fetch the highest price. Some bottle five or ten cases of wine from their best barrel and some make a unique blend from their two best vineyard blocks. This year, as every year, 200 member wineries each crafted a unique auction lot of wine that in most cases represents the very best wine that they are capable of producing. At Premiere Napa Valley, an auction that serves as the world’s most expensive “bake sale” to support the efforts of the non-profit Napa Valley Vintners Association, journalists like me get a chance to sneak a taste of hundreds of unique wines that are purchased by the nation’s top wine retailers at staggeringly high prices. One of my favorite events each year involves the opportunity to sample some of the best wines that Napa produces in a given vintage. ![]()
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