It’s unusual to see men in sharp slacks and shiny dress shoes and women in colorful dresses and sun hats hoofing it along the side of Highway 29 in St. Helena. Most visitors to Napa Valley hire cars or book tour buses to visit the tasting rooms and wineries that line this main drag, especially given how hot it can be on an early weekend in wine country June. But as the traffic snarl just outside of Robert Mondavi’s newly transformed winery comes into focus, it becomes clear why some attendees of this weekend’s event have opted to walk—getting to the Napa Valley Barrel Auction on time is just that important.
Throughout the world, Napa Valley has come to signify the best of American wine—particularly outstanding cabernet sauvignon—and also, at times, a sometimes outlandish luxury. But here, in the place itself, the community turns out every year just to hang out with each other. The people who live here are first and foremost farmers, raising fruit and railing against the same predicaments of pests, weather and market conditions, and many of them have been doing it for generations. Every year at the Napa Valley Barrel Auction, a community-focused event that is part of Auction Napa Valley, winemakers bring still-maturing wine from their latest vintage, hand-pouring sample glasses with their curved “thief” tools that dip directly into the hole at the top of each barrel.
Guests can taste over 100 samples from all over the valley, and place bids on just 10 cases per winery, with all proceeds from the sales going straight to local charities. Some of the barrels are special blends or totally unique offerings that are only available at the auction, while others are a sign of what’s to come that year for a promising vintage; all of them give attendees insight into the plethora of excellent wine being made, year after year, in the heart of California’s most prominent region. Those who fear the region is flagging would have those concerns assuaged at this packed event, and tickets sold out well before it took place this past weekend.
“Even if I don’t have a barrel, I still come every year because it’s just a great community event,” says winemaker Andy Erickson of Favia Wines, who co-founded the label in 2003 with his wife, viticulturist Annie Favia. “Everyone is here—and if you want to support the cause, you can buy a case of wine for what, $2,000? It’s a great way to support the community and meet a lot more people.” Favia’s barrel of 100 percent cabernet franc stood out from a sea of cabernet sauvignon, and the 2025 vintage that was available for tasting won’t be released until fall of 2028. Taken from the winery’s favorite blocks of cab franc on their 86-acre estate in Oakville, their lot’s highest bid sold for $3,350. High bids tend to run a little higher than the per-bottle price, which is somewhere around $225 for Favia on average, and since everything goes straight to charity, generosity is not uncommon.
Along with the barrel tastings and the drama of constantly shifting bids, an outsized number of local food vendors cheerfully represented the bounty of restaurants thriving in the valley, and plenty of other producers poured standard wine offerings for a more traditional sampling experience. With plenty of room to spread out at Mondavi’s sprawling flagship estate, which recently underwent a multimillion-dollar transformation, a live jazz band and iconic burgers and fries from Gott’s Roadside were interspersed among the indoor and outdoor areas for guests to mix and mingle.
Of course, most of the action centers on the barrel tastings as the tension of the auction builds throughout the afternoon. Starting at noon and running until 4 p.m., winemakers and their teams get more animated as the day rolls on, though everything is done in a spirit of friendly competition. “We’ve done the auction for over 20 years,” Stephanie Barnett Rehrmann, a second-generation employee at her family’s label, Barnett Vineyards, tells Observer. “I see people that I’ve grown up with since kindergarten here.”
Though she spent over a decade in corporate America, Barnett Rehrmann recently returned to work in business development for her family’s winery in the Spring Mountain District. Their barrel at the auction was another rarity: a 2024 merlot that will be released next fall. “We are very much known for our cabernet, like a lot of the wineries here, but the merlot coming from Spring Mountain is just a really unique place to grow it, and it stands out among all the cabernet,” she explained.
Newcomers are always entering the Napa scene, and the auction is a good place to get on the radar. Winemaker Tim Bacino from Gen 7 Wines, a first-time attendee, thinks the event is the best way to get his wines in front of people who might not find them just by visiting their tasting room. “For me to get my wines out to the general public, if they don’t visit my tasting room, this is the best way to do it,” Bacino says. “You get all different types of clientele here. I decided to do the auction because we’re so under-the-radar, and then it’s fun to drink wines that are under the radar and introduce them to consumers who don’t know about us yet, and let them discover us.”
Bacino showcased a 2024 vintage of Gen 7’s Vaché Estate Double Barrel cabernet sauvignon, 95 percent cabernet sauvignon with a blend of 2 percent merlot, 1 percent petit verdot and 2 percent négrette, a rare French grape variety that his ancestors were the first to bring over to California. “When I started Gen 7, I met the family who own the property where my ancestor first planted this grape, and that’s how I got educated about négrette,” Bacino says. “Every other year or so, I can get close to a ton of fruit from the family, and I’ve been buying it whenever I can. It’s an amazing varietal, it reminds me of malbec or syrah—it’s super dark and inky but very smooth.”
Since all proceeds from the event go to nonprofits throughout Napa, earning the highest bid isn’t necessarily the focus, but it’s still a nice feather in the cap of the winemaker who gets the prize.
This year, the honor went to Chris Carpenter at Cardinale, who brought a 2024 blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. “This lot has been a tradition,” Carpenter tells Observer. “It pays homage to two of my favorite vineyards: Veeder Peak Vineyard on Mount Veeder and W.S. Keyes Vineyard on Howell Mountain. These are two of my favorite and most coveted vineyard sites.”
The blend, a mix of the best lots from a cabernet sauvignon vineyard on Mount Veeder and merlot grown on Howell Mountain, won’t be released until September of next year. The winning bidder paid $10,000 for a case, several thousand dollars higher than any other lot. “Of course, I was happy with that bid,” Carpenter says. “A lot of heart and soul go into the wines that we produce at Cardinale, and to have somebody recognize that and contribute to the auction in that way is an honor. It’s a great event because I get to interact with my colleagues in the wine world here in Napa, and everybody’s in a festive, happy mood. What’s not to like?”
