2008 AUCTION NAPA VALLEY

Pillar Rock Vineyard celebrated its 10th anniversary at the 2008 Auction Napa Valley by commanding a $90,000 bid for its live auction lot. Our most generous bidder will be serenaded by local mariachis while they and 9 couples experience a Fall Feast prepared by renowned Chef Peter Hall. Of course Pillar Rock will be pouring, and each couple will receive an ample supply of Pillar Rock verticals to drink and share.

When offered a glass of Pillar Rock to taste at this year's Auction Napa Valley, renowned talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey gladly accepted!

RESTAURANT NEWS

On a recent speaking engagement to the Chicagoland area, former Soviet Union head of state Mikhail Gorbachev enjoyed a fine dinner at the Herrington Inn in Geneva, Illinois. Staff presented Mr. Gorbachev with a bottle of Pillar Rock to complement his meal. He so enjoyed Pillar Rock with his meal, he purchased another!

Peninsula Beverly Hills now proudly lists a 7-vintage vertical of Pillar Rock. Executive Assistant Manager Christian Boyens emphatically states "What a vertical of Pillar Rock on our award-winning wine list!"

While dining at Daniel in New York City, the Kuhn's shared some Pillar Rock with Sommalier Philippe Marchal, who emphatically exclaimed "That Pillar Rock is a Cabernet with manners!"

Vol. 18, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2008

Pillar Rock 2004 was chosen as "Best Wine" on the cover

The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley (Stags Leap District), $125, 650 cases, contains 8.8% Merlot, spent about 20 months in oak, and has attractive tree bark, earth, cherry, and currant aromas before smooth, clean, juicy flavors of the same but with the bark becoming smoky oak and all accented with dry tannin. Everything carries through the long, medium-broad finish. Light bodied now, but if you give it another three years in the bottle to develop and open it will become an explosive wine much in the currently favored big, lush extracted powerful style, with a bouquet and flavors of blueberry, blackberry, coffee and dark chocolate. The broad, long, persistent finish will add lots of pepper. Well structured, balanced and integrated. Very Good. BEST WINE.

The Radar Biz
by Jordan Mackay CS Magazine
February 2008

Glass Acts

With a passion for wine,
Chicago entrepreneurs
head west for inspiration

Most wine lovers are content to simply drink a glass of wine and enjoy another person’s hard work. But for some true wine connoisseurs that’s simply not enough; they want to learn the scientific process of making a killer bottle. While Chicago’s wild winters and brief summers render our town unsuitable for wine making, in recent years a handful of locals have ventured out west to California, where producing wine is a more viable endeavor. In fact, wine with Chicago DNA is currently being made from Napa all the way down to Santa Barbara, winning some major awards in the process. Not too shabby for a city in which beer is king.

Long-time St. Charles residents Ron and Teri Kuhn established their vineyard in the late ’90s in the Stag’s Leap district, the same Napa subregion as the original Chicago wine emigrant Warren Winiarski (who founded the famed Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars that won the 1976 Paris tasting, putting Napa on the world wine map, and which he sold last year for a cool $185 mil). In fact, Pillar Rock, as the Kuhns’ wine is named, is barely a stone’s throw from Winiarski’s famed vineyard.

Though Ron, 60, grew up in the Chicago area, he went to college at USC—and that initial trip west would have a huge impact on his future. While it’s hard to live in California and not love wine, it helps even more when your college roommate turns out to be Cary Gott, who would go on to become one of Napa’s most celebrated winemakers. Ron returned to Chicago after college to run the family’s construction business, but he never lost touch with Gott. And in 1994 Gott invited the Kuhns to the Napa Wine Auction where the couple became instantly enamored of the scenery, wine, people and lifestyle. “Those things all came together for us,” says Ron. “It was instantly obvious that Napa was an amazing combination of them all.”

In 1995 the couple settled on a 114-acre property that sports 22 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon. And in 1999 the Kuhns released their first vintage---made by Gott, of course---to much praise. Only 650 cases of Pillar Rock are produced each year, and much of that goes to some of the nation’s finest restaurants, including Chicago’s Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton, as well as Napa’s Auberge du Soleil and the Peninsula in Beverly Hills. “Great cooking is essential to us,” Ron remarks. “It goes hand in hand with fine wine.”

While the Kuhns own a house in Napa and have become regulars in its high-flying social and fundraising scenes (particularly through their generous participation in its famous annual wine auction, where they were the high bidders in 2001), they still consider their primary residence to be St. Charles. “Napa Valley seems like a dream world,” says the 50-something Teri, who first met her husband in high school. “And we’re fortunate to be there. But we’d never want to leave Chicago. This is our home. We just have to make sure it’s well stocked with Pillar Rock.”