Show Us Your Sign

The Welcome to Napa Valley signs, first dedicated by the Napa Valley Vintners in 1950, are receiving some much-needed repairs to ensure they'll be around to greet visitors for at least another 60 years.

From now through June, while the signs are getting their facelift, we pay tribute to these Napa Valley icons by inviting friends and fans of our wine region from around the world to share their favorite photos taken in front of one of the signs. Join the celebration by posting your own photos and by encouraging your mailing list or club members to share theirs.

Post your Welcome to Napa Valley sign photos by June 30.

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Introducing the #ANV13 Social Media Crew

It's May in the Napa Valley, which means Auction Napa Valley is right around the corner! For those who don't know, Auction Napa Valley, the must-attend charity event for savvy wine lovers from around the world, is a three-day food and wine extravaganza that raises funds for Napa County non-profit organizations. Since 1981, Auction Napa Valley has donated more than $110 million to local causes – wow! The event, proudly hosted by the NVV, is all about neighbors helping neighbors – from  extraordinary wines to must-see-to-believe auction lots donated by Napa Valley wineries, what’s raised here, stays here supporting healthcare and youth education from American Canyon to Calistoga.

There are so many amazing stories to tell the week of Auction Napa Valley - about the event, the participating vintners and the beneficiaries - that this year we've engaged an Auction Napa Valley Social Media Crew, a group of social-media savvy vintners, to help us share the excitement of Auction with our fans and followers. We extend a huge thank you to these crew members:

Christophe Smith, Titus Vineyards, @Cork_Dork & @TitusVyds
Anie Peszynski, Blackbird Vineyards, @Blackbird_Wines & @aniewinealot
Gretchen Keith, HALL wines, @HALLwines & @gretchen_keith
Rebecca Martin, Chase Cellars, @ChaseCellars & @napawinegal
Shelby Tashlin, Redmon Wines, @RedmonWines & @STashNV
J Brewner, Judd’s Hill, @partypartyparty
Holly McDow, Somerston Wines, @SomerstonWineCo & @holldoll31

Starting this week, each crew member will be writing guest blog posts about Auction Napa Valley for UNFILTERED. On Twitter, along with following the #ANV13 twitter handle, keep an eye out for tweets from these crew members - and, of course, @NapaVintners - leading up to and during Auction. These folks will be our eyes and ears throughout the valley - and your back-stage pass to Auction Napa Valley.

Cheers to our #ANV13 vintner social media mavens!

E-Auction Extravaganza is Live for Viewing

Wine lovers around the world, from novice to enthusiast, can still get in on the action of this year's sold-out Auction Napa Valley by bidding on the event's global E-Auction. Viewing of the more than 170 uniquely exciting lots is now live at auctionnapavalley.org.

The E-Auction opens on Sunday, May 26 at 12 p.m. PDT and the e-gavel will fall in four waves starting at 6 p.m. PDT on Sunday, June 2.

Learn more.
View the lots.

If I had a million dollars...

That popular refrain from that Barenaked Ladies song has been going through my head the past couple of days. It often does at this time of year, as we approach our annual Auction Napa Valley fundraiser and celebration of all the things that make Napa Valley special - wine, cuisine and the scenic beauty of this amazing place. But, perhaps, the thing that is most special is the coming together of the vintners and the local community to make a difference for those most in need in Napa County.

The NVV just announced $1 million in funding per year for at least the next three years to help close the academic achievement gap in Napa County. The first year of funding for this endeavor comes from proceeds of last year's Auction Napa Valley.

The initiative will specifically target English-learning students at the preschool level, and will also provide parental support services in our local school neighborhoods with the greatest need. Not only will this help these youngsters to get a better start in school, it will ultimately benefit us all as studies indicate these kind of programs result in higher graduation rates, lower arrest rates and reliance on social services, along with greater lifetime earnings (and the resulting tax revenue). It's an idea that state and federal leaders have also identified as a priority.

The contribution from Auction Napa Valley 2012 is just a portion of the total proceeds that were given to area non-profits. In total, the NVV has given $7 million this past year to a variety of community partners - you can read more about it in our recently published Annual Report.

 

If I had a million dollars, I'm not sure what I would do, but I do know that I'm grateful for the generosity of our vintners, our bidders and our community so that the NVV could do this.

 

Patsy McGaughy

Communications Director

Napa Valley Vintners

 

 

What Auction Napa Valley Means to Me

I moved to Napa Valley five years ago, not only to follow my passion of food and wine, but more importantly because I knew that Napa Valley is an incredibly special place to call home.  For months after I first moved here I kept hearing about Auction Napa Valley - fortunately my employer at the time sent me along. I will always remember that first year. I was amazed by the sheer size of it all, what a production!  I truly have never felt that fabulous in my life, running around rubbing elbows with Thomas Keller and Oprah, but more importantly I started to understand what Auction Napa Valley means to everyone here.

To this day I have yet to miss an Auction; I even changed my travel plans and moved back from New Zealand two days before the 2009 Auction so I wouldn’t break my streak.  Auction is my favorite time of year, not only because I have so much fun, but because I am so proud to be involved in an event that does so much good for the community, to date the Napa Vintners have raised more than 111 million dollars for the people of Napa Valley!

This year is going to be a very special year for me.  It is the first year I helped make the wine that we are donating and it is the first year Chase Cellars is participating in the barrel auction.   For my sixth Auction I actually get to be a real part of the action and make a real contribution to all of the wonderful work the Napa Vintners do in the community I love so much.

Rebecca Martin
Chase Cellars
Auction Napa Valley Social Media Crew

(P.S. Want to experience Auction Napa Valley for yourself? Enter our ticket giveaway.)

Napa Vintners Head to China

Our international NVV road warrior, Cessa Beckett, is in China with vintners this week!

Day 1 Quite an experience and very successful. Hangzhou is on the south east coast of China at the southern end of the Yangtze River Delta so there are lots of lakes around the city. A very pretty place with lots of trees and flowers and a population of about 7 million.

Our first seminar got underway slowly – no one gets here on time – but eventually we had 30+ attendees, which was as expected. Our two events in the evening were extraordinary - eight vintners went to pour at Ruby Red, a high end retailer in the city. The 80 guests were all under age 35. Another ten of us went to the Blossom Water Museum Hotel for the Charity Dinner & Auction where another 80 wine-loving consumers joined us, plus Tim Hanni, MW (from Napa) who is employed by the Blossom Group to train them about wine and just happened to be there this weekend. This event was a true Chinese banquet experience – the entire dinner was served on massive lazy Susans in the middle of each large table. After a presentation about the Blossom Company, the charity and more, we ate dinner and then the auction began. Oh boy! I can’t begin to describe it! Wine auctions are not yet commonplace in China, so this was a different experience than a charity auction in the US. But, the charity helps really, really poor children in rural areas and we raised about $3,000 from our 8 or so wine lots. This could build a whole house in this part of the world! It was a very humbling experience. 

On Monday, we hosted events in Shanghai. We kicked off the day with a workshop for the travelling vintners to help them better understand the China wine market. Mid-day, three of our vintner leaders were interviewed by several Chinese media, including TV. This was followed immediately by the trade and media seminar, which was fabulous with some 50+ attendees – an absolutely full house with a few people standing in the back. Then we had the trade tasting with a full house of 200+ quality trade and media. The day concluded with a consumer tasting with Napa Reserve at the House of Roosevelt, overlooking the Bund. Tomorrow we are hosting an educational seminar for university students during the day and more consumer events in the evening in Shanghai, then it’s off to Beijing and Xi’an by the weekend.

Cessa Beckett

International Marketing Manager

Napa Valley Vintners

Napa Vintners Do Care About Climate Change

Since 2006, numerous studies and headlines have repeatedly positioned Napa Valley as a poster child for the devastating effects of climate change. The Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) trade association, known for nearly 70 years in the global wine industry for its forward-thinking leadership on tough issues and protection of the unique place that is Napa Valley, has made no exception when it comes to the topic of climate change.

Understanding how climate change might affect our region specifically is critical to the future of the Napa Valley wine industry, which generates $50 billion for the U.S. economy and more than 300,000 jobs in our country. So the NVV decided in 2006 to form a Climate Change Task Force to better understand the issue. The task force was led by Dr. Dan Cayan and his renowned team of climate scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

Working with vintners, growers and weather stations around Napa Valley, the Scripps science team collected data from 12,000 points in Napa Valley and from this massive collection of grass-roots data, assembled its final report: "Climate and Phenology in Napa Valley: A Compilation and Analysis of Historical Data" by Dan Cayan, Kimberly Nicholas, Mary Tyree and Michael Dettinger.

The report, released in February 2011, indicates that Napa Valley has warmed slightly over recent decades, but not to the degree that has been reported in the studies noted above, which analyze broader California weather station data. According to the Napa Valley-specific data analyzed for our report, the warming we have experienced, one to two degrees Fahrenheit, has taken place primarily in overnight temperatures between the months of January to August. In fact, Napa Valley has actually experienced cooler daytime temperatures and increased marine fog influence during the summer growing season in recent years.

Although part of the greater California wine industry, Napa Valley is a unique place and is best understood by looking at appellation-specific data. Climate change can and will affect all fine wine-growing regions worldwide, but the results will not necessarily be a blanket effect, as climate change is not a "one size fits all" phenomenon. This is a very long-term issue which vintners and growers around the world need to pay attention to and be directly involved with. At the end of the day, vintners and grape growers are farmers. As no two harvests are the same, farmers must successfully adapt, harvest to harvest, season to season, year to year and have done so for nearly two centuries in the Napa Valley, and for many thousands of years worldwide. For the farmer, change is not only inevitable; it is a way of life.

Patsy McGaughy
Communications Director
Napa Valley Vintners

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