The Country’s Best Known Wine Event Comes to Jarvis

March 2012

On June 1, some 2,000 people will converge on Jarvis Estate for the Barrel Tasting and Auction, a curtain-raiser for the weekend’s festivities showcasing the great food and wine that defines this valley. On Saturday, June 2, the main auction will move to Meadowood in St. Helena. What you will find if you visit Jarvis for the event is a winery transformed. Massive billowy canopies will be erected in the meadow leading up to the cave where some of the region’s most renowned chefs will offer tastes of their signature creations.

But the main attraction will occur inside the cave. The Barrel Chai, the largest man-made underground winery chamber in the world, will be turned into a giant marketplace featuring barrels of the top wine from Jarvis and 99 of our Napa brethren. Guests will have the opportunity to taste the still-aging wine from the barrel and then place bids on their favorites. The bidding is often furious as participants vie for a chance to purchase some of Napa’s best bottles, wines that won’t be released for several years. The 10 highest bidders for each lot will receive a case of that wine once it’s bottled.