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Gary Fisch (stripped shirt) of Gary's Wine and Marketplace (location New Jersey)

,,, so here I am, freshly returned to NYC after a week in Napa tasting fantastic wine, spending time with fellow journalists at the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood, and attending many of the festivities and tastings leading up to the Premiere Napa Valley Barrel-Futures Auction.

This year you will be happy to know that the auction raised almost a million more than last year (nearly two million dollars) and had been bested only twice in its 14 year history.

Now you must be asking yourself some questions, quite possibly:

1. Isn't there supposed to be a recession?
2. Isn't there some sort of buzz predicting the price lowering of high end California wine?
3. Who are the biggest buyers?
4. What wines went for the highest price.

Yes - there is a recession. And despite talk of it being over, it may be a while until we are full speed ahead. And yes, you have probably heard gloom and doom statements about "overpriced" California wine.

Yet according to many of the wine buyers at the auction, demand for upmarket California wine is increasing and they predict by the time the wine is ready to be bottled and sold to customers, demand will be there.

The top selling lot of the day was from Shafer Vineyards, a five-case offering of Sunspot Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon sold to Napa-based Winebid.com for $37,000.

The number two bidder was Nakagawa Trading Company of Japan, purchasing thirteen offerings including high-earning lots from Lewis Cellars, Schrader Cellars, and TOR family vineyard.

Gary Fisch of Gary's Wines (pictured in stripes above) purchased 38 different wines for his clients from the Premiere catalog, including BOND, Chateau Boswell, and Staglin Family Vineyards.

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