Showing posts with label Cabernet Sauvignon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cabernet Sauvignon. Show all posts

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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Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Introducing The Spring 2015 Live Auction Featuring The Hudson Highlands Collection

(IRVINE, Calif.) - Irvine, California-based Spectrum Wine Auctions LLC, one of the world's leading fine and rare wine auction houses, is pleased to announce that it will be selling The Hudson Highlands Collection this Spring in both a live auction in Los Angeles as well as in specialized Internet auctions conducted through its feature-rich website and state-of-the-art online bidding platform. The Spring 2015 Live Auction Featuring The Hudson Highlands Collection will take place on Saturday 14 March 2015 at SoHo House West Hollywood, and it will be preceded by The February 2015 Distinguished Cellar Series Internet Auction that will run from Friday 6 February through Thursday 12 February.




The Hudson Highlands Collection, valued in excess of $1 million, includes many of the world's greatest wines consigned by one of the world’s foremost wine collectors. Upon building an illustrious career as an East Coast real estate magnate, this collector decided that the next challenge in his life would be to build one of the largest and most impressive wine cellars in the world. Decades of his life were dedicated to traveling throughout Europe, learning about wine, meticulously building his cellar, and continuously tasting and adjusting course along the way.

The 10,200+ bottles in this series of auctions from The Hudson Highlands Collection were stored since their acquisition in an impeccably curated, custom-built, temperature- and humidity-controlled underground wine cellar in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. While the consignor proudly admitted to a distinct preference for Premier Cru Classé Bordeaux, he did not discriminate against the other great regions of the world. This collection’s repertoire is as widely inclusive of the world’s top wine regions as it is deep, touching on a seemingly comprehensive range of top-tier producers’ wines in various colors, styles, vintages, grape varieties, and formats.  The finest wines of France, Italy, Spain, the United States, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Australia, and Argentina are, of course, all amply represented here.
 
The Hudson Highlands Collection boasts several selections of pristine Premier Cru Classé Bordeaux, including lots of the renowned 2010 vintage from the legendary Châteaux Pétrus, La Fleur-Pétrus, Margaux, Haut-Brion, and Cheval Blanc. Domaine Armand Rousseau highlights include 6-bottle lots from the 2009 vintage of Chambertin, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos Saint-Jacques, Ruchottes-Chambertin Clos de Ruchottes, Charmes-Chambertin, and Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Cazetiers. Screaming Eagle appears in the 2005-2009 vintages, several of which are in magnum (1.5L) format. Other noteworthy large formats on offer include Château Mouton Rothschild 1982 and Colgin Herb Lamb Vineyard 1996 in double magnum (3L) formats, Bryant Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 in magnum, and Opus One 1995 in imperial (6L).  The collection also features a vertical of Krug’s glorious Clos du Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Brut spanning the 1981 through 1998 vintages.  Other featured producers include Domaine Leflaive, Ramonet, Robert Arnoux, Etienne Sauzet, Jacques Prieur, Sylvain Cathiard, Henri Boillot, Joseph Drouhin, Louis Jadot, Lucien Le Moine, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Méo-Camuzet, M. Chapoutier, Gaja, Bruno Giacosa, Roberto Voerzio, López de Heredia, CVNE, Dominio de Pingus, Vega Sicilia, Bryant Family, Marcassin, Sine Qua Non, Bond, Opus One, Philip Togni, Salon, F.X. Pichler, and many, many more.

The Hudson Highlands Collection Highlights


-          Full case (12 Bottles) of Château Margaux 2010 (Estimate: $8,000)
-          Full case (12 Bottles) of Château La Mission Haut-Brion 2003 (Estimate: $2,000)
-          6 Bottles of Château Haut-Brion 2010 (Estimate: $3,250)
-          10 Bottles of Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse 1990 (Estimate: $6,000)
-          6 Bottles of Château Cheval Blanc 2010 (Estimate: $4,000)
-          6 Bottles of Pétrus 2010 (Estimate: $15,500)
-          1 Double Magnum (3L) of Château Mouton Rothschild 1982 (Estimate: $4,250)
-          1 Bottle of Barbeito Terrantez 1795 (Estimate: $3,000)
-          1 Bottle of Quinta do Noval Vintage Porto Nacional 1963 (Estimate: $1,400)
-          6 Bottes of A. Rousseau Chambertin 2009 (Estimate: $6,000)
-          6 Bottles of J. Prieur Montrachet 2010 (Estimate: $5,000)
-          6 Bottles of S. Cathiard Vosne-Romanée Aux Malconsorts 2010 (Estimate: $2,750)
-          2 Magnums (1.5L) Château de Beaucastel Châteauneaf-du-Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin 1990 (Estimate: $2,250)
-          2 Bottles of Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 (Estimate: $4,250)
-          4 Bottles of Krug Clos du Mesnil 1990 (Estimate: $4,000)

-          Full Case (12 Bottles) of G. Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella 2003 (Estimate: $3,500)





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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Remembering Al Brounstein


by Dan Rhodes

source

Spectrum recently hosted an all-California gala at Charlie Palmer restaurant in Orange County featuring any number of extraordinary “Old-School” Napa classics of yesteryear. It was a superb tasting with any number of delightful efforts but, to me, the wines that really stood out were the Diamond Creek wines. We tasted “Gravelly Meadow” 1991, “Volcanic Hill” 1991 and “Gravelly Meadow” 1987.

Old School California Pop-Up Tasting @ Charlie Palmer Costa Mesa

In my former retail life, I got to taste once or twice with Al on a couple of his whirlwind sales tours through the Southland. Upon enjoying these spectacular efforts, my thoughts went back to those days and I thought to myself how fortunate I was, as a wine professional, to actually have met and tasted with this visionary and legendary Napa pioneer.

Al was a beautiful guy, a very forward thinking individual who truly had his antennae over the horizon in embracing so wholeheartedly the French concept of terroir  (for Cabernet Sauvignon, no less) while fully understanding and appreciating its importance in crafting distinctive wines of artistic merit. I remember the knock on his wines at the time was always, “You’ll never be able to drink them…they will take forever to come around.” Or something like that. Fair enough. Al was definitely old school in fashioning vin de garde wines that demanded time in the cellar. But the duckling eventually does become a swan and my notes bear witness to just how enthralling his legendary efforts have become with a bit of time and patience in the cellar.

In a world obsessed with the here and now, it’s both rewarding and important to re-live a slice of yester-year remembering why people got into the industry and started to collect all this stuff in the first place. Many of today’s Napa winemakers could learn a lot from Al and his approach to both life and wine.


Diamond Creek 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon “Gravelly Meadow”
The wine introduced with a magnificent nose of deep cherry/black cherry fruit reiterated to the palate in conjunction with hints of tobacco, soy and road tar all of which was inflected with stony hints of soil and earth. Sublimely nuanced with hints of cassis and spice, the wine was, surprisingly, fairly lush in the mouth with most of the tannic structure resolved.
Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill 1991, along with other wines poured that night (Jordan 1979, Heitz Martha's 1987, Heitz Martha's 1973)


Diamond Creek 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon “Volcanic Hill”
This wine showcased minerality galore in conjunction with brooding, dark, loamy fruit redolent of cherry/black cherry, wild berry and cherry pit. The soil inflected nuances were completely different from the above-noted “Gravelly Meadow” properly confirming Al’s original decision to vinify and bottle these as two separate entities. This one still has a ways to go.

Diamond Creek 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon “Gravelly Meadow”
This terroir-driven affair spoke in similar fashion to the 1991 in combing all sorts of rock and gravelly nuances with softer, flambéed black cherry/black currant fruit. For many, this classic was the wine of the night. Hints of coriander, carob and exotic spice rounded out this masterpiece which spoke volumes about the efficacy of respect for terroir and the joys of traditional winemaking.

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