Going to Premiere Napa Valley this year for the first time was such an amazing experience for me: I spent three days at parties tasting ridiculous wines — what could be bad?.
But I wanted to better understand why people from the trade think this event is worth the annual pilgrimage.
Guys like Gary Fisch of Gary’s Wine & Marketplace, have been coming for 19 of the 20 years that the Premiere Napa Valley event has been around.
The wines being auctioned are pretty expensive and unavailable, but, according to Fisch, they really are that much better than what’s readily sold in the marketplace.
So it’s a collectors dream come true. And members of the trade come to buy for clients. In Gary’s case, most of the wine he buys at auction is already pre-sold. That’s how much his clients want it.
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So I sat down with Fisch and his associate Chad Watkins to get the insider’s take on it all. I asked about how they prepare for the trip and how they taste and rate over 226 wines before they decide to buy.
Oh — and they people at the auction are assigned a paddle that has a number on it based on the amount they purchased the previous year. Gary was #3 this year and has been #1 in the past.
Fun stuff. Listen in.
So great. Cent’ Anni.
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