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At Napa’s Barrel Auction, Wine Country’s Own Get the First Pour for a Cause

The Napa Valley Barrel Auction is when the local community behind the wine region gathers for a look at vintages to come and some friendly competition.

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. 

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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........

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