Proceeds from auction lot for custom bottle, VIP dinner, and custom ruby jewelry design will raise funds for cancer research
Menlo Park, CA | New York (July 24, 2020) – The rarest jewel of the wine cellar will be up for auction at the V Foundation Wine Celebration “Momentum 2.0” this August. Silicon Valley jeweler Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry and renowned Napa Valley vintner Gemstone Vineyard have co-designed a ruby-encrusted Jeroboam bottle of the 2019 future of Gemstone’s Ruby Barrel Selection for the auction, to be held August 8 on YouTube from 4:30 p.m. -5:30 p.m. PT/ 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. ET. Hosted by NCAA basketball coaching legend Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski, ESPN college basketball analyst, Jay Bilas, ESPN’s SportsCenter Anchor, Sage Steele, and Emmy award-winning auctioneer John Curley, and joined by surprise celebrity appearances, the fully immersive auction experience will feature one-of-a-kind auction items including this rare ruby bottle, with proceeds raising critical funds for cancer research.
The bottle will contain a 2019 Future of the Napa Estate’s premier Ruby Barrel Selection, an exquisite Cabernet Sauvignon crafted by winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown (2018 Wine Spectator: “Napa’s Top Gun”), which will be specially bottled, etched, waxed, adorned with rubies, and will come presented in a custom ‘jewelry’ box. This highly exclusive vintage is usually only available to Gemstone Vineyard’s wait list of top clientele, and typically sells out every year. This special auction lot marks the first time the Ruby Barrel Selection has ever been offered in a large format 3L edition, and is certainly the first to be so elaborately adorned, etched and gem-encrusted, with rubies hand-selected by Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry President Jared Silver.
The auction lot also promises the opportunity to dine privately with the Silvers and the Dornbuschs of Gemstone Vineyard, enjoying Gemstone library wines and special chef-prepared cuisine, as well as the chance to brainstorm a custom, future ruby jewelry design, to be crafted by the Silvers’ team of designers and artisans. Once the wine has been consumed, the Silvers will carefully extract the gems from the bottle and repurpose them into a custom designed new ruby jewelry piece for the lot winner, making this auction lot a collaborative experience that will likely span decades.
The Silvers and the Dornbuschs have long been friendly, sharing a love for local philanthropy and finding common ground as producers and purveyors of rare, collectible commodities that require the right conditions, passion, and expertise to create. Their friendship continued to flourish once Jared Silver joined Gemstone Vineyards Proprietor Amy Marks Dornbusch on the V Foundation Wine Celebration Board in 2019. This bottle collaboration for the Wine Celebration was the fruit of their close collaboration, as the Board sought to make this year’s auction lots more exclusive than ever before.
Jared Silver, President of Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry: “The work of the V Foundation has always been deeply personal to me and to the Silver family since some of our own loved ones have succumbed to cancer in recent years. That is why our company has made a long-term commitment to supporting the V Foundation and why I am so proud to serve as a Board member alongside Amy Dornbusch. The partnership with Gemstone Vineyard was the natural result of our mutual desire to creatively channel our individual resources and expertise for this unique collaboration. We are excited that auction proceeds from this ruby Jeroboam bottle will help fund even more cancer research.”
Amy Dornbusch, Proprietor, Gemstone Vineyard: “This is an incredibly special collaboration and important to us for many reasons. I have been on the board of the V Foundation Wine Celebration for 7 years and my family has supported this phenomenal organization for over 20. Jared and Stephen Silver have become great friends of ours through this community and through our positions on the board. This collaborative project is a testament to our friendship and our shared desire to find a cure for cancer. Named after our daughter, the Ruby Barrel Selection is the most special Cabernet Sauvignon from our estate; a wine that is crafted by tasting through every single one of our barrels and selecting the 4 most distinctive of the vintage. There is as much thought and deliberate attention to quality and detail put into our wines as the Silvers dedicate to crafting their exquisite pieces. We are thrilled to offer this “gem” as it is such a meaningful alignment of the values behind Gemstone, the Stephen Silver brand, and the winning bidder. It is my sincere belief that we will find a cure for cancer long before this Jeroboam reaches its aging potential. I hope the enjoyment of our 2019 Ruby Cabernet serves as the ultimate celebration for finding a cure, and the beautiful Stephen Silver adornment its lasting legacy!”
Bids for the Ruby Jeroboam and other one-of-a-kind auction items will be accepted via the Greater Giving platform. Pre-registration is encouraged. For more information on the auction and how to register, visit winecelebration.org/momentum2020.
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About Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry
Stephen Silver is a Silicon-Valley based gemologist, geologist, diamonteer, and philanthropist. Over the course of the last 40 years, Silver has established a reputation amongst his global network of jewelry industry contacts and elite gemstone collectors for his expertise in diamond and color gemstone cutting and jewelry design. Following his geology studies at San Diego State University and earning a Graduate Gemologist degree from GIA, Silver later returned to the San Francisco Bay Area to found an estate jewelry firm specializing in antiques and precious stones. There, he gained access to a number of history’s most important colored gems, including the famous Cullinan Blue Diamond necklace, a historic piece he went on to purchase and donate to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and later, the Pink Promise Diamond, which he recut and improved, resulting in a record price per carat at auction in 2017. Joined in recent years by son and Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry President Jared Silver, Stephen Silver expanded his business into a vertically integrated wholesale manufacture and retail operation of international reach with an office and retail boutique based in and around Menlo Park, California. For more information, visit shsilver.com
Beyond their renown as gemstone, jewelry, and timepiece experts, the Silvers are also recognized in Silicon Valley for their extensive philanthropic work. As lifelong residents of the San Francisco Bay area, they have been both consistent and significant supporters of a number of charities, donating millions to regional organizations that include the Sharks Foundation, the Peninsula Volunteers, Inc., Bizworld.org, Menlo Charity Horse Show, One Mind, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, the V Foundation, and more. The company’s philanthropy program carefully screens potential beneficiaries to ensure that at least 90 percent of the funds they raise benefit their causes, and evaluates each program’s efficacy in combating disease, advancing education, or the arts.
About Gemstone Ruby Barrel Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
Our Ruby Barrel Selection Cabernet Sauvignon is our smallest-production wine, and it celebrates our proprietor’s first-born daughter, Ruby. For this wine, our winemaker carefully selects just four barrels from every vintage, evaluating each individually vinified lot and blending for beautiful balance of fruit character, power, acidity, and structure – a complete expression of our estate. We like to think of our Ruby Cabernet Sauvignon as honoring both the legacy of Gemstone Vineyard and the next generation of the Gemstone Vineyard family. Aged for 20 months in 100% new French Oak. Only 100 cases produced.
About Gemstone Vineyard
Gemstone Vineyard has been producing award winning estate Cabernet Sauvignons for over 25 years. The vineyard was carefully selected for its unique geological characteristics and was planted in a complex variety of clonal selections and blocks, which are vinified separately for ultimate quality. Thomas Rivers Brown, a decorated star in the wine world and one of the most sought after winemakers in Napa Valley, crafts the Gemstone wines through an intricate blending process allowing specific parts of the Gemstone terroir to characterize each of the three Cabernets from the estate. The 16-acre vineyard is located in the Yountville Appellation of Napa Valley, on the alluvial deposits just east of Pritchard Hill. Robert Parker once called this coveted area “the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Napa Valley,” with Gemstone at its center. Gemstone has a limited production of under 1,500 cases sold primarily to its allocation members with a few select restaurant placements including The French Laundry, Per Se, and the Michael Mina restaurant group. The proprietors, Amy and Adam Dornbusch are dedicated to the continued excellence of their vineyard and wines and carrying the Gemstone legacy into the future. www.gemstonevineyard.com
Gemstone Vineyard has been a proud vintner partner of the V Foundation Wine Celebration for over ten years and has raised well over $1 Million for cancer research through its own philanthropic contributions and one of a kind auction lots.
