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The February 2019 Distinguished Cellar Auction, Part I

Auction # 539 | View Auction Schedule and Details
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Auction Ends: 2/7/2019 6:00:00 PM PDT

Lot #799. Sutter Home Cabernet Sauvignon NV

Description: Consists of 2 Bottles, 0.75L
Score: . SH.
“Bob [Trinchero’s] wine-tasting experiences soon paid off. He developed a good palate. [Darrel] Corti recalls one particularly great product that Bob discovered on his own and subsequently bottled for Corti Brothers. ‘In those days, everybody bought wine in bulk from every other winery. Winemakers exchanged wines they made with wines from other winemakers, so they could all have complete lines of wine,’ explains Corti. ‘Besides his own wines, Bob also delivered or bottled wines he didn’t make. Winemakers like John and Mario Gemello bought vermouth and ‘Marsala’ from Sutter Home, and Bob bought what he needed, as he needed it, to supplement his line of Sutter Home wines.’ ’In 1969, our store sold wine that Bob bought from Gemello’s winery in Mountain View. Bob brought the wine back to Sutter Home in barrels stenciled with the words ‘Lemon Extract.’ They were perfectly good containers.’ As with scavenging and recycling wine bottles, the Trincheros used any containers they could, even if they weren’t meant for wine. Back then, Corti drove from his store in Sacramento to Napa Valley once a month. ‘I went to Gemello’s and bought some old Cabernets,’ Bob told Corti on one visit. ‘In those days, old Cabs didn’t sell very well,’ Corti adds. ‘But Bob said he tasted them and he liked them, so he bought 100 gallons, which he put into two 50 gallon barrels.’ Corti reaches out as if grabbing a glass, ‘Let me taste it. Holy shit!’ Corti is a man not easily impressed, but when he is, he eagerly expresses himself. ‘This was really good wine. ‘Bob,’ I said to him, ‘that’s really good!’ Bob was clearly developing the palate of a good winemaker. The wine he bought from Gemello was a blend of 1959 and 1960 Cabernet from Saratoga. But, as Bob told Corti, the wine was quite costly. He wanted $1.50 a gallon for it. Corti agreed that it was a very high price. ‘Bob asked me, ‘What do you think we can sell a wine like this for?’ I told him that if he bottled it, I would buy half. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘that will relieve the pressure at home.’ Then Bob asked Corti what he would sell the wine for. ‘I told him I’d sell it for $2,79 a bottle,’ recalls Corti. ‘Remember, at that time, reserve wines were selling for less. So $2.79 was a bit pricey.’ As Bob and Corti finished their price discussion, Mario [Trinchero] walked into the winery through the tasting room’s swinging door. It was five o’clock, closing time. ‘Don’t you want to stay for a drink?’ asked Mario. ‘A drink from Mario meant a martini,’ notes Corti. ‘He was a terrific martini maker.’ Corti continues the story: ‘So Bob says, ‘Hey, Dad, Darrell just bought half of this Cabernet that I bought from Gemello.’ Mario replied casually, ‘Wonderful. What are you going to sell it for?’ So I told him we were both going to sell it for $2.79 a bottle. ‘Mario took off like a Roman candle!’ recalls Corti. ‘At $2.79 a bottle, I’ll have that wine around for 40 years! I’m gonna go broke! You’ll drive me into bankruptcy! You can’t sell a wine for $2.79 a bottle. No one’s gonna buy a wine at that price!’ In fact, Gemello’s Cabernet sold so well that Bob bought another 500 gallons of it.” Kate Heyhoe and Stanley Hock, Harvesting the Dream: The Rags-to-Riches Tale of the Sutter Home Winery, © 2004
Provenance: The Montagne Cellar
Notes: Top shoulder, 1 wine stained, lightly corroded capsules, 1 lightly torn, lightly wrinkled, lightly damp stained, lightly glue stained, lightly scuffed, lightly bin soiled labels, signs of slight past seepage.
Read about SWA's Six Point Inspection Process and how to read the condition notes.
Lot Location: Orange County
Estimate: $150

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