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22 WINES&VINES April 2016 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS S t. Helena, Calif.—The Napa Valley Vintners raised $5 million toward their own operations Feb. 20 at the annual Premiere Napa Valley auction in St. Helena. The total was the third highest in the auction's 20-year history. Trade buyers among the 1,000 attendees from around the world bought 226 one-of-a-kind lots of futures, most of them for 2014 vintage wines. The wines will be finished and bottled in amounts ranging from five to 20 cases each. Wines from established, well-distributed brands such as Duckhorn and Rombauer vied with newer names such as Memento Mori and Realm Cellars for the highest prices per lot. For example, a group of Swiss wine enthusiasts bid $130,000 for five cases of Memento Mori 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon. The annual barrel tasting and auction, which is open to licensed members of the trade who procure wines on behalf of their customers and collectors, is the longest run- ning regional barrel auction of wine futures in the United States. Not all bidders were high roll- ers, however. Wendy Heilmann is director of wine and spirits for Pebble Beach Resorts in Pebble Beach, Calif. She has been attend- ing the auction since 2004 in order to buy wine, if possible, but also to network with wineries, try to get allocations for her restau- rant and retail venues and take the pulse of Napa winemaking. She came with a budget and a de- sire to buy something that could be marked up reasonably and sold to her customers, so she didn't buy one of the high-flying lots. Heilmann had her eyes on the Corison Winery lot, but it went up out of her price range. Still, she was happy to make the winning bid on five cases of Broman Cel- lars 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon for $3,500. She plans to put it on the list at Stave Wine Cellar, a wine bar and wine shop at the Inn at Spanish Bay. Proceeds from Premiere Napa Valley are earmarked for Napa Valley Vintners' marketing and promotional endeavors toward the mission of "promoting, pro- tecting and enhancing the Napa Valley appellation." Cate Conniff, the group's communications manager, said, "We are very lucky to have had a series of very suc- cessful Premieres that have al- lowed the NVV to, for example, first build and then pay off the mortgage on our offices." Besides raising money, the auction also has raised the bar for wine quality, said Doug Shafer of Shafer Vineyards, who was this year's auction-steering commit- tee chair. "We are making better wines than 20 years ago, and we should be. Back then three or four wines out of 20 would be horri- ble. But Premiere Napa Valley has pushed all of us internally to just raise the bar, to try and offer a better wine than the others. In Napa Valley we are friendly com- petitors, but man you better be- lieve we are competitors." —Jim Gordon Trade Buyers Bid $5 Million For Napa Futures Auctioneers call the last lot at the 2016 Premiere Napa Valley auction. BOB MCCLENAHAN / NAPA VALLEY VINTNERS