wined out!

So in the past 48-72 hours, I think I may have actually had too much wine. Why? I've been working at Napa Valley's major trade-only wine auction from Friday morning to yesterday afternoon.

I don't think the average person really ever hears about this auction because average people don't attend. The event is strictly for trade -- restaurateurs, retailers, etc. And not just any trade, the crème de la crème of wine buyers, people who can and will spend $40K (and sometimes more) on five cases of wine that they then re-sell to serious collectors and their best customers. (Just imagine what the mark-up on a bottle will be -- if you break it down by auction price alone, one bottle is $300 or so. So think of what a bottle will cost when it is actually on a wine list or in a catalog. $500? $600? More?)

Of course, these five cases aren't ordinary wines. Each winery creates a special barrel lot for this auction, so these are one-of-a-kind wines you won't be able to find anywhere else.

Because so much money is involved in this auction, wineries pull out all the stops to court potential bidders and encourage them to bid high on their lots. The Friday before the auction is always jam-packed with winery open houses and special tastings. (I worked at the Vintage Perspectives Tasting at the Culinary Institute on Friday morning. It started at 10 a.m., so I was uncorking and tasting through 18 bottles of wine at 9 a.m. -- before I had even had any breakfast! Thank goodness for the spit cup.)

And then it was off to the open house events. My friend Jessica writes about wine for a newspaper, so she got all kinds of invites. When I got off work on Friday, I joined her as her "plus one" at two of the events, Duckhorn and Frog's Leap.

When I say people pull out all the stops for this, I mean it: Duckhorn was insane -- valet parkers, live jazz music, barrel tasting, verticals of library Merlot (the 94 was my favorite) out of gigantic bottles (12L?), sparkling from Schramsberg (um, amazing), etc. etc. And everyone was there -- I kept bumping shoulders with people, and I think I may have annoyed some women when I accidently hit them in the rear with my too-large purse. I even recognized the guys who won our auction lot last year. It was a little overwhelming for me.

Frog's Leap was more my speed (and their party went until midnight, which was pure genius since there is zero nightlife in Napa). Their new hospitality facility is like a gorgeous three-story Craftsman home, so going to their open house felt like going over to a (very rich) friend's place for a fabulous get-together. (Also, the staff is really, really warm -- you really do end up feeling very welcomed and very at-home.) They were pouring library wines (86 Cab was beautiful), the winemaker was cooking up mini hamburgers in the kitchen and there was a game of pool going downstairs. Nice! But alas, we didn't stay for long. I had to work at the auction the next day, and Jess was covering it, so we left at 10:30.

Which brings me to the actual auction. Vintners had to arrive by 9 a.m., and the tasting of the auction lots started at 10:30. So once again, it was wine first thing in the morning. And I had to be on too -- the event was full of media -- Steven Spurrier of Decanter and the infamous 1976 Paris tasting (meeting him is pretty much like meeting a legend), for instance. And there were also some serious VIPs. (Question: How does Alex Smith, quarterback for the 49ers, get bidder status at a trade-only event? Also, in person, he is smaller than I expected.)

Our lot -- Pinot Noir from clone 667 -- was beautiful, and we got some nice compliments on it from the media who were there. I made it a point to taste all of the Pinot lots in the auction, just for comparison's sake. (There weren't very many -- Napa is known for Cab, so almost every lot was Cab or a Cab-based blend.) So I took my tasting glass and tried Ceja, Cuvaison, Saintsbury and Bouchaine Pinots. And I also tried to sample some of those cult-level wines that everyone goes nuts over but I will never be able to afford: Shafer, Staglin, Amuse-Bouche, etc. And of course, I had to taste my usual favorites, Corison and Schramsberg (Schramsberg more than once -- they were pouring next to us, and their wine was just gorgeous -- wasn't spitting that one out!).

So yes, by the time I left the auction at 3 p.m., my palate was done. And I found myself really, really craving a beer. And a long nap.