One of my favorite exercises each year involves trying to get a sense of recent vintage quality in Napa through tasting. My usual venue for this is the event known as Premiere Napa Valley, a fundraising auction held by the Napa Valley Vintners Association. As opposed to the star-studded event known as Auction Napa Valley, whose proceeds benefit charity, Premiere Napa Valley raises money for the Napa Vintners organization itself.
In service of that fundraising, members of the organization produce special, often unique lots of wine in quantities between 5 and 25 cases (a full barrel). There are usually between 180 and 230 different auction lots available for bidding, and all of them are made available to taste for members of the trade (as well as some members of the press) leading up to the auction, which is usually held in February.
For years, I made it a habit to attend this tasting and taste as many wines as I could in the time available to me. But recently, the date of the tasting has conflicted with school breaks (and therefore family vacations), so I have had to make do with tasting a smaller portion of these wines at other events and as bottled samples, which the Vintners kindly make available to me when they have them…