Premiere Napa Valley Event: The Melka Tasting at Meadowood

Premiere Napa Valley, an auction of epic proportions, featuring exclusive, very expensive, one of a kind lots from Napa vintners, kicked off Friday afternoon with various group or appellation tastings around the valley. The pre-event tastings are designed to whet collectors' appetites for what lies ahead - the biggest, spendiest gathering of top collectors, elite wine merchants and self-organized wine buying clubs or syndicates.

(The Premiere Napa Valley auction is not to be confused with the Auction Napa Valley, a charity event hosted in May; Premiere Napa Valley's auction benefits the Napa Valley Vintners, the region's powerful marketing organization - a vital part of the local economy and the engine that keeps Napa's wines in the global spotlight).

French born and Bordeaux trained, Philippe Melka, one of Napa's most elite consultants, sits at the epicenter of this whirlwind. Melka is, in the words of Robert Parker, "one of the most powerful people in wine today," and a consulting winemaker at 10 very select Napa wineries. He also makes wine under his own brand - Melka Wines, and, in addition to this Napa clients, also has one client in Sonoma.

Both Melka and Michel Rolland, the other French born major wine consultant in Napa, prefer that clients use organic methods in the vineyards, so I made it a point to taste my way through the four wineries with certified vineyards at the Melka tasting who are all featured below. 

Wine expert Karen MacNeil (author of the ever popular Wine Bible) and
Kort van Bronkorst, both of whom I connected with at the
Wine Writers Symposium, popped in to taste the selections

Joe Filippin from Entre Nous, with the 2012 Cab;
Entre Nous is Melka's only Oakville Cab

Cherie Melka of Melka Wines, holding the
2012 Bordeaux Blend Jumping Goat
(grown in St. Helena)

Stephen Adams of Howell Mountain's Adamvs
holding a magnum of Adamvs, the all estate Cab;
Adamvs' vineyards are organic and Biodynamic

Melka's sole Sonoma client is Skipstone
located in Alexander Valley; Amy Schaefers displays
the latest vintage of Skipstone's Olivier's Blend

If you want to know more...All the wines from these ultra premium Napa wineries (and many more) are featured in the apps Organically Napa: Wine Finder and Organically Napa: A Tasting and Touring Guide ($9.99 each/available on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.)