Monday, July 13, 2015

Grace Family, The Bosché Clone, And A Napa Family History – Bid Now

“I rarely report on them because they are, for all intents and purposes, unobtainable.” – Robert M. Parker, Jr.

In the mid 1970s, Dick and Ann Grace moved to the bucolic Napa Valley to open a new chapter in their lives. Upon purchasing a striking 1881-vintage Victorian above sleepy St. Helena, the Graces, with the help of Jim Barbour, began to plant a single one-acre vineyard with cuttings from Rutherford’s legendary Bosché Vineyard. The Cabernets produced from this vineyard are now among Napa’s finest and rarest examples.

Grace Family Vineyard’s first vintage, the 1978, was picked by five family members and seven friends and produced with Chuck Wagner down the road at Caymus Vineyards, as were the subsequent vintages through 1986. (Grace’s history is marked by a somewhat complex series of partnerships with other likeminded winemakers.) Production from the (now) two-acre, organically-farmed Grace Vineyard was tiny, however – one acre yielded only 150 or so cases – and demand soared as the winery’s critical reception and reputation for world-class, age-worthy wines quickly took shape and skyrocketed. Grace’s wines were suddenly very difficult to attain.

In the early 1990s the vineyard – along with many others in Napa – began to succumb to two common scourges, grape phylloxera and Armillaria mellea. Thus in 1993 only 75 cases were produced, in 1994 175, and in 1995 a mere 70-75 cases (3 barrels) again from only the upper portion of the vineyard. Production finally reached a low of 48 cases (2 barrels) in 1996. So to reach as many of his customers as possible in as collectible a format as possible, Dick began to bottle the wine in unusual 1-Liter bottles that were each etched and laboriously hand-painted – only one 1-Liter bottle was offered to each of the members of the mailing list. The asking price was high, but, as Dick reported to Wine Spectator at the time, each (empty) glass bottle cost him over $52 (or $76 in 2015). Mature examples of Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon thus remain among the rarest and most collectible – and ultimately ageworthy – of Napa’s wines.

A winemaking family has also grown out of the very unique Cabernet Sauvignon budwood planted at the Grace Vineyard. In the 1980s, Grace furnished Hartwell Estate Vineyards with some of its Bosché-derived budwood for their first plantings in Stags Leap District; Hartwell’s wines were produced at Grace until the 1999 vintage. Another young St. Helena winery, Vineyard 29, was also originally planted with Grace budwood in 1989 at a site only about 100 meters south of Grace and their wine was also produced at the Grace winery until 1998. After planting the Grace Vineyard in 1976 with Dick and Ann, Jim Barbour later planted his own vineyard in St. Helena in 1992 with Grace budwood as well. The early Barbour vintages were also produced at Grace. Longtime winemaker Gary Galleron produced the Grace wines and early Vineyard 29 wines from 1988-1995; legendary winemaker Heidi Peterson Barrett then took over at Grace in February 1995, finished the 1993 and 1994 Hartwell wines, and began producing the Vineyard 29 wines as well.

In this auction we are proud to offer an extraordinarily rare selection of wines from Grace Family Vineyards and from the winemaking family that grew out of its early partnerships. We are offering 20 lots of Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon in three formats (1989-2004), 17 lots of Hartwell Estate Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon in two formats (1990-1997), 7 lots of Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon (1995-2010), 6 lots of Vineyard 29 Cabernet Sauvignon in two formats (1993-2002), 3 lots of Galleron Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (1999-2001), and 2 outstanding lots Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection from the acclaimed 1994 and 1995 vintages.

Nearly all of the aforementioned bottles come from The Santa Lucia Highlands Cellar – a single-owner collection of legendary California wines acquired exclusively from the wineries themselves. This extraordinary cellar was removed by Spectrum specialists from a refrigerated, subterranean wine cellar near Carmel-by-the-Sea and transported overnight under temperature control to the Spectrum wine warehouse in Irvine CA.
Lot 212. Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon 1995. 2 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 92WSEstimate: $95.00, Opening Bid: $75.00
Lot 211. Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon 1996. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 91WSEstimate: $180.00, Opening Bid: $140.00
Lot 209. Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon 1997. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 93RPEstimate: $180.00, Opening Bid: $140.00
Lot 210. Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon 1997. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 93RPEstimate: $180.00, Opening Bid: $140.00
Lot 208. Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon 1998. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 88-90RPEstimate: $140.00, Opening Bid: $95.00
Lot 207. Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon 2000. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.Estimate: $160.00, Opening Bid: $120.00
Lot 1374. Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon 2010. 6 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 89-92STEstimate: $700.00, Opening Bid: $500.00
Lot 92. Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection 1994. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 95RPEstimate: $375.00, Opening Bid: $275.00
Lot 91. Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection 1995. 5 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 97WSEstimate: $700.00, Opening Bid: $500.00
Lot 136. Galleron Merlot Jaeger Vineyard 2001. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 92WSEstimate: $30.00, Opening Bid: $20.00
Lot 224. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1996. 1 Liter, 1L.
Score: 91STEstimate: $275.00, Current Bid: $180.00
Lot 223. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1997. 1 Liter, 1L.
Score: 92+STEstimate: $350.00, Opening Bid: $250.00
Lot 222. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1998. 1 Liter, 1L.
Score: 89-92STEstimate: $300.00, Opening Bid: $200.00
Lot 220. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1999. 2 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 89-92STEstimate: $300.00, Opening Bid: $200.00
Lot 221. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1999. 1 Liter, 1L.
Score: 89-92STEstimate: $300.00, Opening Bid: $200.00
Lot 219. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 2000. 1 Liter, 1L.
Score: 90STEstimate: $300.00, Opening Bid: $200.00
Lot 218. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 2001. 1 Liter, 1L.
Score: 92STEstimate: $250.00, Current Bid: $170.00
Lot 217. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 2002. 1 Liter, 1L.
Score: 91WSEstimate: $300.00, Opening Bid: $200.00
Lot 215. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 2003. 1 Liter, 1L.
Score: 90STEstimate: $190.00, Opening Bid: $140.00
Lot 214. Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 2004. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 90-92STEstimate: $375.00, Opening Bid: $275.00
Lot 268. Hartwell Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1990. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 92RPEstimate: $190.00, Opening Bid: $140.00
Lot 266. Hartwell Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1992. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 90WSEstimate: $130.00, Opening Bid: $90.00
Lot 264. Hartwell Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1994. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 90RPEstimate: $130.00, Opening Bid: $90.00
Lot 262. Hartwell Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1997. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 89-92STEstimate: $100.00, Current Bid: $80.00
Lot 269. Hartwell Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1997. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 89-92STEstimate: $150.00, Opening Bid: $110.00
Lot 246. Vineyard 29 Cabernet Sauvignon 29 Estate 1996. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 91STEstimate: $120.00, Current Bid: $85.00
Lot 245. Vineyard 29 Cabernet Sauvignon 29 Estate 1997. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 94RPEstimate: $150.00, Current Bid: $110.00
Lot 242. Vineyard 29 Cabernet Sauvignon 29 Estate 1999. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 92-94RPEstimate: $70.00, Opening Bid: $50.00
Lot 244. Vineyard 29 Cabernet Sauvignon 29 Estate 2000. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 90STEstimate: $120.00, Opening Bid: $85.00
Lot 243. Vineyard 29 Cabernet Sauvignon Aida Estate 2002. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 95RPEstimate: $150.00, Current Bid: $125.00
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Friday, July 3, 2015

The Historic Eisele Vineyard: A Napa Valley First-Growth

 As the SR 29 highway begins to wend more northwesterly at Bale Lane and crosses Ritchey Creek, one crosses the AVA border into the famed Calistoga Viticultural Area at Napa’s most northerly corner.  Resting atop the highest concentration of volcanic soils of any of Napa’s subregions and boasting both the highest diurnal temperature variation and the greatest steeply-sloped-hillside-to-valley-floor vineyard ratio in the valley, Calistoga is able to yield some of Napa’s most distinctive wines.  And one of Calistoga’s – and Napa’s – greatest jewels is the legendary 35-acre Eisele Vineyard in the northeastern foothills.

The modern history of the Eisele Vineyard began when it was purchased by Milton and Barbara Eisele in 1969.  Over the subsequent 21 years, the Eiseles supplied acclaimed fruit to some of California’s benchmark wineries, including Ridge (1971), Conn Creek (1974), and Joseph Phelps (1975-1991).  Then, in 1990, Bart and Daphne Araujo purchased the Eisele estate and proceeded to invest in temperature-controlled caves, property and vineyard advancements ultimately resulting in both organic and biodynamic certification, and the property’s first winery.

From 1991 through 2013, the Araujos produced superlative Cabernet Sauvignon (as well as Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Syrah) from this historic vineyard.  And their tireless efforts did not go unnoticed: scores in Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate have averaged over 95 points since 1991, and the 2013 was recently awarded a potentially perfect barrel score of 96-100.  And alas, in the same year, Fraçois Pinault’s Groupe Artemis, the longtime owners of Château Latour, Château Grillet, and Domaine d'Eugénie (formerly Domaine René Engel), purchased Araujo and its Eisele Vineyard, beginning a new chapter in this storied property’s history.

And so today we are proud to offer an extraordinary selection of wines from the Eisele Vineyard in our Summer 2015 Auctions.  While historic inaugural vineyard-designate Eisele Cabernet bottled by Ridge Vineyards in 1971 was just sold in our Live Auction (Lot 91), the current online sessions feature an additional twenty-one outstanding Eisele lots dating back to the great Joseph Phelps Eisele Vineyard 1986, here in double-magnum format (Lot 3578).  The current offer includes two vintages of Phelps Eisele (1986 and 1991), the Araujo Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier across three vintages, and the Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ranging from 1991 through 2008 in bottle, magnum (1.5L), double-magnum (3L), and rare imperial (6L) formats.

Lot 2076 deserves special mention, however: this lot showcases one bottle of Araujo’s rare Vieilles Vignes bottling from Araujo’s inaugural 1991 vintage.  The Vieilles Vignes, only produced from 1991-1998, was produced from the vineyard’s oldest, head-trained, Eisele clone vines planted on St. George rootstock in 1964.  This block was the source of the legendary 1971 Ridge Eisele, 1974 Conn Creek Eisele, and 1975 Phelps Eisele bottlings.  The Vieilles Vignes bottling was discontinued in 1998 when the old Block 3 vines finally succumbed to virus.  This wine was not commercially released; indeed, this Lot represents the only available offering of the ’91 Vieilles Vignes in the world.
Lot 2073. Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard 1993. 1 Imperial, 6L.
Score: 96RPEstimate: $1,200.00, Current Bid: $1,100.00
Lot 2071. Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard 1994. 1 Imperial, 6L.
Score: 95RPEstimate: $1,800.00, Current Bid: $1,400.00
Lot 2069. Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard 1996. 1 Imperial, 6L.
Score: 94RPEstimate: $1,300.00, Current Bid: $1,100.00
Lot 2065. Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard 2001. 6 Magnums, 1.5L.
Score: 99RPEstimate: $2,500.00, Current Bid: $2,000.00
Lot 2076. Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard Vieilles Vignes 1991. 1 Bottle, 0.75L

"First produced in 1991, the Vieilles Vignes was made from Block 3, the estate’s oldest vines of head-trained Eisele clone Cabernet Sauvignon planted in 1964 on St. George rootstock. Block 3 was the source of the 1971 Ridge, 1964 Conn Creek and 1975 Joseph Phelps Eisele Cabernets, all iconic, benchmark wines for the property and Napa Valley. Araujo made just one barrel of the Vieilles Vignes each year until 1998, when the vines finally succumbed to leaf roll virus. At the time, the rest of the fruit off Block 3 went into the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon bottling. The Vieilles Vignes was always 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and was not released commercially, but mostly given as gifts.Readers fortunate enough to own . . . [one] are in for a real treat." - Antonio Galloni, Vinous.
Score: 95RPEstimate: $400.00, Current Bid: $150.00
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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Didier Dagueneau: The Loire Valley’s Legendary Dissident Conscience

Just as the hopeful harvest of a complicated vintage began to take shape in September 2008, news began to trickle in to Pouilly that the plane carrying one of France’s greatest winemakers had gone down in the Dordogne.  Even though this man – the Loire Valley’s great dissident conscience, Didier Dagueneau – had only been releasing his own wines since 1982, he had in short order made an indelible mark on the history of the Loire Valley and on the genre of white winemaking generally.  Thus not only was the tightly-knit wine community of the Centre-Loire shaken by his loss, but the world’s greater wine community was as well.

Didier’s uncompromising standards, rigorous attention to detail, appetite for risk, and fervent desire to make the greatest Sauvignon Blanc in the world are legendary.  But it was his love of his region’s vines that drove him to devote an enormous amount of time, capital, and attention to the cultivation of great, ageworthy wine.  Partly inspired by the likes of Henri Jayer, Edmond Vatan, André Chabanne, Denis Dubourdieu, Claude Thomas, and others, Didier dramatically – and loudly – lowered his own yields and called on his neighbors to do the same.  While often harvesting less than 40 hl/ha, Didier employed an enormous number of workers (reputedly one per hectare) to carefully tend to his vines throughout the growing season.  Didier often employed organic treatments, low yields, selection massale planting on low-vigor rootstock, horse plowing, experimental oak sizes and shapes (e.g. the elongated “cigares”), and other quality-forward methods to produce the most mineral, concentrated Sauvignon Blanc his vineyards could muster.  His are among the world’s greatest white wines.

Thus we want to pay homage to this extraordinary man and the incomparable wines he fashioned.  We are proud to offer aSummer 2015 Auction that features nearly three dozen rare lots of Didier Dagueneau’s wines extending from the 1993 vintage to the 2007 vintage (his last).  The current offering includes the 1995 and 1997 vintages of En Chailloux including both bottle and magnum formats, the 1993-2007 vintages of Silex including both bottle and magnum formats, and the 1993-2006 vintages of Pur Sang.

En Chailloux is a beautiful blend of fruit from several stellar vineyard sites in Pouilly-Fumé.  The Silex emanates from multiple parcels of 50+-year-old vines in silex-rich soils atop the butte above Saint-Andelain and has traditionally been vinified in Dagueneau’s unique “cigare” barrels and then finished in tank.  The Pur Sang is a blend of 30+-year-old parcels grown in richer clay- and silex-rich soils in Saint-Laurent and is similarly raised.
Lot 2231. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé En Chailloux 1997. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 89STEstimate: $150.00, Current Bid: $110.00
Lot 2217. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 1993. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 89WSEstimate: $70.00, Opening Bid: $55.00
Lot 2215. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 1995. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 95WSEstimate: $70.00, Opening Bid: $55.00
Lot 2214. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 1996. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 94WSEstimate: $180.00, Opening Bid: $150.00
Lot 2210. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 1998. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 92WSEstimate: $70.00, Current Bid: $50.00
Lot 2211. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 1998. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 92WSEstimate: $70.00, Opening Bid: $50.00
Lot 2209. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 2002. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 96WSEstimate: $95.00, Opening Bid: $80.00
Lot 2207. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 2003. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 92WSEstimate: $75.00, Opening Bid: $60.00
Lot 2208. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 2003. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 92WSEstimate: $75.00, Opening Bid: $60.00
Lot 2206. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 2004. 3 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 95WSEstimate: $250.00, Current Bid: $175.00
Lot 2205. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang 2006. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 94+JGEstimate: $75.00, Current Bid: $60.00
Lot 2229. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 1995. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 92WSEstimate: $120.00, Opening Bid: $80.00
Lot 1428. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 1996. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 93WSEstimate: $120.00, Current Bid: $136.00
Lot 2228. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 1996. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 93WSEstimate: $120.00, Opening Bid: $90.00
Lot 2225. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 1998. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 90WSEstimate: $85.00, Opening Bid: $60.00
Lot 2224. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 1999. 2 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 93WSEstimate: $170.00, Opening Bid: $130.00
Lot 2223. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 2002. 2 Bottles, 0.75L.
Score: 95WSEstimate: $325.00, Opening Bid: $225.00
Lot 2221. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 2003. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 93WSEstimate: $85.00, Opening Bid: $65.00
Lot 2222. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 2003. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 93WSEstimate: $85.00, Opening Bid: $65.00
Lot 2220. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 2004. 1 Bottle, 0.75L.
Score: 96WSEstimate: $85.00, Current Bid: $65.00
Lot 2232. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 2005. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 96WSEstimate: $325.00, Current Bid: $225.00
Lot 1426. D. Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex 2007. 1 Magnum, 1.5L.
Score: 94WSEstimate: $190.00, Current Bid: $195.00
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