Weekend events raise $6.5 million for Wine Country youth.
Excerpts of social media posts June 4–8, 2025, with additional notes:
So many fun folks attended the 2025 Napa Valley Barrel Auction at Louis M. Martini Winery. Barrel Auction participants bid on 111 lots of wines still aging in barrel – after they’re bottled (in most cases in 2026), the lots will be available to the winning bidders. Along with the main auction the next day, the weekend saw $6.5 million raised for the Napa Valley Vintners‘ Youth Wellness Initiative.
In the lead photo are vintner Stephanie Douglas (center) of Aratás and sommelier Tonya Pitts. I met Douglas years ago over one of her Petite Sirahs (she was pouring two excellent Sauvignon Blancs at the auction), but our first long conversation (about wine and life) was at a Barrel Auction dinner a few years back. Pitts’s name came up numerous times during my recent swing through the Sierra Foothills – she evaluates the region’s wines for Wine Enthusiast.
Jean Hoefliger is the winemaker and a partner at AXR Napa Valley. For many years the director of winemaking at Alpha Omega, Hoefliger is also an in-demand consultant. A historic St. Helena setting and his superbly crafted wines make tasting at AXR a memorable experience. The 2023 AxR1 wine for the auction was a blend of grapes used to make the winery’s single-vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons.
Chris Carpenter of Cardinale. His sultry 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon combined Mount Veeder grapes with Merlot from Howell Mountain to marvelous effect. Carpenter also produces the wines of three other celebrated operations: La Jota, Lokoya, and Mt. Brave. Carpenter and I reminisced briefly about a freewheeling Howell Mountain panel he was on a few years back.
Winemaker Sarah Vandendriessche of Elizabeth Spencer Winery. Vandendriessche poured a Cabernet Sauvignon she and winery consultant Heidi Peterson Barrett made from the top-notch Hirondelle Vineyard in the Stags Leap District AVA. We’ve followed Vandendriessche’s career at Elizabeth Spencer since she started—her debut wines were being poured in Rutherford the first year of my Fodor’s gig. I appreciated hearing thoughts about the effects of aging wine in concrete (she loves it).
Winemaker and proprietor Thomas Rivers Brown of Mending Wall Winery. I admire Brown for his ability to balance style and terroir so gracefully. Although many other things were going on with his 2023 Godward Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, its blue-fruit overtones immediately captured my attention. Brown’s many consulting clients include Far Niente and Theorem Vineyards.
Winemakers Joe Harden and Phil Holbrook of Nickel & Nickel. Their 2024 auction Cab, a veritable baby from the estate John C. Sullenger Vineyard in Oakville, already showed succulent power.
Winemaker Jennifer Rue of Oakville Ranch. Her wine packs a punch, I thought as I took the first sip or two, which got me ruminating on what had the most impact: the ranch’s singular hillside location or the 80% new French Oak. (The combination, of course.)
Vintner Bart O’Brien of O’Brien Estate. His Merlot-dominant 2023 Unrestrained Reserve auction blend was delicious and then some. I learned about his winery from Florida-based relatives who were gifted a tasting a decade ago. Their gushing led me to visit on my own – and the winery’s biennial appearances in Fodor’s Napa and Sonoma.
Vintners Dan and Kim Johnson of Okapi Winery. In the photo, Kim is hold an okapi miniature. The winery’s namesake animal is commonly known as the forest giraffe. The 2023 Proprietor’s Reserve blend of Cabernet Sauvignon from their estate vineyard exhibited power and opulence.
Winemaker Barrett Anderson of Spring Mountain Vineyard. He wasn’t around last October when I visited the winery, which is bouncing back admirably from its Glass Fire travails. Anderson is keeping the tradition of making Cabs built to last – we both remarked about a 1988 that’s drinking beautifully right now the winery is featuring at its Founders tasting these days. The name of his auction lot, “The Faithful 5” (2023), reflected the source of its Cabernet Sauvignon: five estate blocks in the Spring Mountain District AVA.
Vintner Julie Johnson of Tres Sabores, a Napa Valley fave I consider a foolproof recommendation – I’ve never sent anyone to Tres Sabores who wasn’t wildly enthusiastic about visiting this small Rutherford operation. Johnson’s rosé went perfectly with Ad Hoc’s fried chicken sliders (see below).
Winemaker Peter Heitz of Turnbull Wine Cellars. The purple-tongued Heitz mugs frivolously in our two-shot, but he was full of wisdom about going easy on the oak with Cabernet. Ever the iconoclast, for the auction he crafted a 2023 Rhône-style blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre (with a touch of Italian Lagrein) that I adored. Two days after the barrel auction, I sent four East Coasters to Turnbull and Tres Sabores, both of which earned glowing reviews from the travelers.
Chef Daniel Zeibel and his team at Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc & Addendum. The quartet posed quickly before returning to their vital mission, assembling fabulous fried chicken sliders.
Didn’t catch her name, but she’s holding terrific fig and Brie baguette sandwiches by Angèle Restaurant & Bar in Downtown Napa.
Chefs Eric Zuniga of Scala Osteria and Scott Warner of Bistro Don Giovanni. The two prepared meatballs, gnocchi, and ravioli that paired well with the Tres Sabores rosé.
Great chatting with everyone in between the sips and bites. Collective Napa Valley, the vintners’ philanthropic arm, puts on Auction Napa Valley and a few other events. Look for the next one, the Fine Wine & Experiences online auction—which always has some unique offerings—in October 2025.