Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/935769
56 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 T hough far from Jayson Wood- bridge's Napa Val- ley headquarters, Las Vegas couldn't have been a more fitting locale for the Never Before, Never Again Tasting that the Hundred Acre Founder/ Winemaker hosted at Sage in the ARIA Resort and Casino last December. Given long odds—a last-minute clothing mishap that left him in his winter coat, a hotel alarm that blared intermittently, a malfunc - tioning microphone—Woodbridge beat them all to deliver a masterful presenta- tion of 16 library wines from an estate he admitted was itself a gamble when he launched it as an industry newcomer 18 years ago. "There was no business plan, no projection," he said. "I just took every cent I had and went all in." Proof that his high-stakes bet has paid off in spades was evident by a glance around the room filled with some 60 guests. They had flown in from all over for the occasion—mostly collectors who, Woodbridge told me, "have been asking if they could buy wine out of the library for years, and the answer's always been no. The library has always been off-limits to everyone." But with the winery's 20th anniversary in view, he said he felt ready to offer his fans some "perspective on the wine through time, because the one thing that Hundred Acre does incredibly well is handle time. And I wanted to be able to tell some stories about these vintages, what my experience was in making them, how I felt about them." Hence his eloquent preface to the tasting. "Wine," Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Hundred Acre Founder/Winemaker Jayson Woodbridge. Hundred Acre Wraith 2013, a blend from three of Woodbridge's top vineyards, was a big hit at the dinner.