Menlo Park, CA | New York (August 12, 2022) – Silicon Valley jeweler Stephen Silver and Napa Valley’s Gemstone Vineyard collaborated once again to co-design one of the world’s only ruby-encrusted Jeroboam wine bottles. The precious gem-set 3L bottle of Gemstone Ruby Barrel Selection Cabernet Sauvignon from premier winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown was part of a charity auction package for the 2022 V Foundation Wine Celebration, which took place in Napa Valley on Saturday, August 6, 2022. After the owner consumes the wine, the bottle may be returned to Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry, and the hand-selected gems removed and reset into a custom jewelry piece. The experiential auction package, which also included an ultra-exclusive hosted VIP Hollywood experience to Beverly Hills, netted $110,000, contributing to a total of $6.5 million dollars raised for cancer research.
A Jewel of a Vintage in a Precious Ruby-Set Bottle
Fellow Wine Celebration Board members Jared Silver, President of Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry, and Amy Dornbusch, Proprietor of Gemstone Vineyard spearheaded the project. The fruit of their third consecutive charitable collaboration reunited the philanthropy-driven partners who also share a passion for producing rare treasures for clients of discerning taste.
Only five precious ruby-set bottles have been produced to date. The 2022 bottle auction price of $110,000 outstripped the original series of four bottles auctioned at the 2020 V Foundation Wine Celebration, which sold for $75,000 each.
Jared Silver, President of Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry and 2022 event sponsor: “The 2020 auction results certainly exceeded our expectations, and for 2022, we were proud to raise even more funds for the V Foundation and cancer research.”
The Winning bidder received a rare 3L bottle of Gemstone Ruby Barrel Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, encrusted with rubies hand-selected by Jared Silver. After the wine is perfectly aged and artfully blended by award-winning vintner Thomas Rivers Brown, it will be poured into the 3L bottle, etched, waxed, and set with perfectly matched rubies. The bottle comes presented in a custom ‘jewelry’ style box. The vintage itself is a highly desirable gem, usually only available through Gemstone Vineyard by waitlist only.
The Hollywood Treatment
Above and beyond these exceptional treasures, the winning bidder will also enjoy the chance to be treated like Hollywood royalty, joining Jared Silver and Amy and Adam Dornbusch on the trip of a lifetime to Beverly Hills where they will enjoy a taste of the celebrity lifestyle with four-star plus accommodations in Los Angeles, dinner at a top restaurant, and a private Bentley and driver available for the duration of the stay, courtesy of Bentley Motors, Inc. The ruby-set 3L bottle of Gemstone Ruby Barrel Selection Cabernet Sauvignon will be presented to the winner during their hosted trip in February of 2023.
The Napa Valley to Hollywood theme continued ahead of the Saturday evening charity gala. As a treat for guests, Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry and Gemstone Vineyard partnered with celebrity stylist Jen Rade to host an on-site beauty bar, helping attendees select and borrow exquisite jewelry pieces from Stephen Silver for the evening.
Amy Dornbusch, Proprietor, Gemstone Vineyard, and Co-Chair, 2022 V Foundation Wine Celebration: “This is an incredibly special collaboration and a testament to our friendship and shared desire to find a cure for cancer.”
The 2022 V Foundation Wine Celebration live auction lot #4 included the following:
• 3L Gemstone Ruby Barrel Selection Cabernet Sauvignon Encrusted with Rubies
• Custom Jewelry Design with the Jeroboam Rubies by Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry
• 2 Exclusive Tickets to a top-tier Hollywood awards ceremony in Beverly Hills
• 1 Room for 2 Nights at a 4-Star Hotel in Los Angeles, CA
• A Private Bentley and Driver
• Dinner for two at a Top Restaurant
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 countless charities, donating millions to regional organizations.
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.
