Two records were set at Sunday night’s auction. Andrea and Bruce Bryant, John M. Cotterell, Julie and Alan Kent and Kristina and Paul Somerville ponied up $250,000 for the Grand Champion Best of Show wine, J. Lohr’s 2017 Cuvee PAU Red, a cabernet-centric left-bank Bordeaux-style blend. Meanwhile, 50 Cent, now a proud Houston resident, and his beverage partner Sire Spirits, LLC, the business end firm of Branson Cognac and 50’s Le Chemin Du Roi Champagne, forked over an unprecedented $125,000 for the Top Texas Wine, the 2017 Hye Meadow Winery Boooom Red.

Boooom indeed!

The 46-year-old New York-born rapper, whose given name is Curtis Jackson, has become a player in the Rodeo wine scene in a big way in a very short time. As you may recall, his fancy Le Chemin du Roi Brut champagne won Reserve Grand Champion Best of Show honors for 2021 and a three-pack of same went for $360,000 at the COVID-delayed auction in mid-May. That evening he got out-bid. He wasn’t going to let it happen again.

However, had you told him when he was a kid growing up in South Jamaica Queens that he’d one day pay more than 100 grand for a Texas wine – even for a nine-liter bottle – he’d have thought you were smoking that stuff he freely admits he was selling on those mean streets back then.

This year’s Reserve Grand Champion, the locally-owned Nice Winery’s Cabernet Franc from the 2017 vintage, sold for a near-record $200,000. Only one other Reserve Grand Champion had brought in more ($215,000) since the late Bear Dalton, Spec’s longtime fine wine buyer, first sold the Rodeo on the crazy idea of launching an International Wine Competition in 2003. In the years since, it has become one of the country’s largest and most prestigious.

Note that J. Lohr, which has a major presence in Monterey County and Napa Valley as well as the winery’s home base in Paso Robles, joined lofty company with its Best of Show designation, becoming only the third winery to claim a second Grand Champion saddle. Its 2014 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles took top honors in 2018 (but sold for “only” $145,000).

The Guado al Tasso, Bolgheri Superiore, a Bordeaux-style blend from the fabled Antinori family in Tuscany, also took top honors twice, in 2012 and again in 2014. But, of course, Alexander Valley Vineyard’s CYRUS, yet another Bordeaux-style blend, ranks in a class by itself with four Grand Champion saddles collected, most recently in 2021.

As for the Texas champion, Hye Meadow’s Mike Batek – a.k.a. “The Grape Guru” and also “The Dude”– is the man behind the Boooom, in which he blended negroamaro, montepulciano, aglianico and sangiovese grown in the Texas High Plains that  then spent 24 months in French oak. Like 50 Cent, Batek is another unlikely vintner, having grown up in south Texas or, in his words, “Miller Lite country.” But what he calls a divinely inspired mid-life course correction led him to Texas Tech to study viticulture and then on to the heart of the Hill Country.

Batek, by the way, also makes a High Plains Nebbiolo ( http://www.hyemeadow.com) that I can’t wait to try. You know me and nebbiolo.

* 2022 – J. Lohr Cuvee PAU 2017

* 2021 – Alexander Valley Vineyards CYRUS, Alexander Valley, 2014

* 2020 – Piper-Heidsieck Brut Champagne

* 2019 – Graham Beck Brut Rosé South Africa

* 2018 – J. Lohr Vineyards Signature Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, 2014

* 2017 – Arinzano Gran Vino Blanco, Pago de Arinzano 2010

* 2016 – Orin Swift Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Mercury Head, Napa Valley, 2013

* 2015 – Rombauer Vineyards Diamond Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

* 2014 – Antinori Guado al Tasso, Bolgheri Superiore 2009

* 2013 – Alexander Valley Vineyards CYRUS, Alexander Valley 2008 

* 2012 – Antinori Guado al Tasso, Bolgheri Superiore 2007

* 2011 – Alexander Valley Vineyards CYRUS, Alexander Valley 2006

* 2010 – Davis Family Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2005

* 2009 – Vina Robles Suendero, Paso Robles, 2006

* 2008 – Stags’ Leap Winery Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2003

* 2007 – Clos du Bois Marlstone, Alexander Valley, 2003

* 2006 – Raymond Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2001

* 2005 – Hang Time Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley, 2003

* 2004 – Alexander Valley Vineyards CYRUS, Alexander Valley, 1999 

* 2018 Goldeneye Brut Rosé – It’s a 60-40 pinot noir-chardonnay blend, with the Anderson Valley grapes from Goldeneye’s best vineyards undergoing whole-cluster pressing and fermenting in neutral woro, then aged sur lees for 10 months, followed by en tirage aging for two years. Disgorging and dosage happens six months before the wine is released. $65 at duckhornwineshop.com      

* Lunaria Ramoro Pinot Grigio – You’ll see the bottle and think this is a rosé. It’s not. The biodynamically farmed grapes are fermented with skins on for about 30 days, explaining the hue and the wine’s rich texture and intense flavors. The Cantina Orsogna, a cooperative of 31 planet-friend growers who live in the heart of Italy’s Abruzzo, has been Demeter-certified since 2005. Buy it for $16.99 at Whole Foods.

* 2019 OZV Old Vine Zinfandel Lodi – Lodi zin is king, in my book, especially when it can be had for such a price. Raspberries and blackberries with a suitable pinch of spice in this bargain bottle made from Oak Ridge Winery’s estate fruit. The family goes back five generations in Lodi. Yes, they know their terroir inside out. $12.99 at wine.com 

* Tuesday, March 8 – Four-course South African wine dinner, Astor Farm to Table, 1590 S. Mason Rd., Katy. 6:30 p.m. $49.99. astorfarmtotable.com.

* Saturday, March 12 – Empanada and Wine Night, SERCA Wines Tasting Room. 6-8 p.m. 713 405-0082. $35 per person or $90 for four with a bottle. info@sercawines.com

* Ongoing through March 20 – The Champion Wine Garden at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. Go to rodeohouston.com for a complete list of entertainers and wine-seminar presenters. 

Recently updated postings

* Russ Kane (vintagetexas.com) – It’s last-call time to enroll in Kane’s “Specialist of Texas Wine” class scheduled for March 23 at AOC, and he’s got all the information for you on his site.

* Jeff Kralik (thedrunkencyclist.com): Jeff recounts a memorable visit to Alentejo, Portugal’s largest wine region, with lots of great photos.

* Jeremy Parzen (dobianchi.com): Parzen, the Roma wine director and my podcast partner, pays tribute to Fabio Picchi, the famous and influential chef (Cibreo in Florence) who’s considered the godfather of modern Tuscan cuisine. Picchi, only 68, passed away recently.

* Katrina Rene (thecorkscrewconcierge.com) – Kat provides a recap of the recent comprehensive Houston seminar and trade-tasting that was focused on three of Italy’s “under-the- radar” wines from the Abruzzo and Franciacorta plus Moscato d’Astis.

* Baseball’s owners are clueless. Ditto baseball players. I mean, really? Doubt I’ll ever go to another game.

* The world’s sports federations deserve a standing ovation for telling the Russians to get lost and stay lost. Honestly, this surprised me. Never thought they’d have the courage.    .