2019 Premiere Napa Valley

Anyone attending Premiere this weekend?

I’m not but have several good friends that will be there. They normally bring a few good bottles back. Or, barrel taste new stuff that we end up buying.

I have never attended, nor do I anticipate going. I live in Louisiana.

I do enjoy looking at the wines being offered at the Napa Auction as well as Sonoma’s counterpart.

I have a couple friends up there right now and their Instagram posts make me drool with envy. Seems like Napa just goes into full blown party mode…

Anyone ever buy bottles in the marketplace? I got the impression that a few bottlings were geared towards earlier drinking and targeted at restaurants.

Not uncommon to see bottles listed at very reasonable prices, but I’ve never tried one.

Berserker Jean Edwards Wines had a lot in the auction

Premiere Napa Valley and the week leading up to it are a blast. This was the third auction for us and our first participating in the live auction (our first two were online).

Our first lot went to group in Oklahoma, our second to a group in Alabama and this year our auction lot was won by Gary’s Wine in New Jersey.

Karen,

How was your PNV auction lot this year different from your regular cabernets? What was the “secret sauce”?..

Good to see my fellow Oklahomans buying wines this weekend. There is a local retailer that normally buys a barrel with a group among a few others.

No special sauce (well maybe a little but then if I told you it wouldn’t be a secret any longer LOL). We don’t release a blended wine from our single vineyard designated cabs - Yates, Stagecoach or G3 - so for us its always interesting to see how blending these in different percentages influences the final wine. Last years blend was valley floor dominent. This year’s blend was very much mountain cab - 60% Yates CS (Mt. Veeder); 30% Stagecoach CS (Pritchard Ill Region); 10% Rutherford CS. It was delicious and very aromatic - a bigger wine than most at PNV.

For those that have not attended - the set-up is exactly the same for each NVV member pouring at the event. We all pour from a single French Oak barrel, similar decanter, etc.

Second photo provided by NVV - is the before picture.
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