Napa valley wine auction shatters record – What’s the impact on the fine wine market?

(StarkInsider) - The results are in. And they are of the record-shattering, mind-blowing, could-not-possibly-be-true variety.

First: the average bottle sold at Premiere Napa Valley, one of the wine industry’s biggest auctions, went for $283 (wholesale). And you thought your $69 bottle of Chimney Rock Cab was pricey?

In total the PNV auction, which is held annually at the Culinary Institute of America (at Greystone), raised $5.9 million. That’s nearly double last year’s results.

But that’s not all.

The top lot was a real eye-opener.

A lot of Scarecrow wine (60 bottles of 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon) went for–in the words of the folks from Napa Valley Vintners–“an astounding” $260,000. That works out to only $4,333 per bottle. I’m telling you, you’re never going to look at that Chimney Rock the same way again. Or that Etude either for that matter.

Also, this is the busiest I’ve ever seen the auction room. It was standing room only, with large fans blowing massive amounts of air across the room in an attempt to keep things from boiling over.

If these walls could talk! Beautiful busks of Vintner Hall of Fame inductees stamped onto barrels encircle the downstairs room at the CIA where the barrel tasting took place in advance of the auction. I could only imagine what the likes of Robert Mondavi, Cesar Chavez and August Sebastiani would think about what has become of their tiny upstart known as Napa Valley.