When I began representing Derby Wine Estates, I was delighted to discover that owners Ray and Pam Derby, in addition to loving wine and wine business, are also car people. They own a couple of really beautifully maintained, carefully selected collector cars and drive them on a regular basis. It's all well and good to have a couple of pristine vehicles in the garage, but it's so much more fun to hit the road in an old XKE or Corvette (the same situation holds true for people who collect wine but never get around to actually drinking their prized bottles).
So it felt appropriate that we availed ourselves of the opportunity to show the 2005 Derby Wine Estates Cabernet Sauvignon at a meet 'n' greet at the O'Gara Coach Company in Beverly Hills. The largest Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Aston-Martin dealer in the US, they also represent Bugatti, Lamborghini, and other marques so obscure that few people have ever heard of them unless they're regular readers of Automobile magazines.
The wine was very well received by the attendees, mainly automobile brokers and financial advisers who do business with O'Gara on a regular basis. They were surrounded by a lot of phenomenal automobiles, great O'Gara staff members, and excellent hors d'oeuvres.
While I'm very partial to the design and engineering that goes into the Bugatti (above), the financial aspects of such a car are immense. By some rough calculations, for the cost of one Bugatti Veyron, you could buy approximately 45000 cases of Derby Cabernet. Personally, I'd probably take a pass on the Bugatti and buy an Aston Martin DBS, a Rolls-Royce Phantom, and a Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SV, and still have enough money left over for a couple of hundred cases of Derby Cabernet. Depending on currency fluctuation, there might even be plenty remaining for some Derby Pinot Gris.
I love working events such as this one. The O'Gara folks were great to talk to, and best of all, the crowd was friendly, they enjoyed the wine, and took the Derby brochures with them.
