Sonoma Valley wine auction bounces back
The ladies of Magnum Force react when the bidding for their lot of 58 magnum wine bottles reaches $58,000 during the 18th annual Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction at Cline Cellars on Sunday. Vintners agreed to duplicate the lot for the top two bidders.
BETH SCHLANKER/The Press DemocratPublished: Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 2:38 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 9:10 p.m.
If you consider auctions a barometer of the economy, the Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction showed signs of an economic upturn, raising $511,000 on Sunday, up from last year's take of $330,000.
“We're building each year,” said Honore Comfort, executive director of Sonoma County Vintners, one of the organizations behind the auction. “We knew going in with this economy it was going to be challenging.”
More than 500 people gathered under the white tent at Cline Vineyards in Sonoma, dining on a six-course gourmet meal while engaging in an afternoon of bidding and revelry. Organizers transformed the winery into a beach party for the occasion, replete with surfboards, mai tais and sand — everything you could imagine except for the surf.
The auction, now in its 18th year, continues to be the most irreverent on the North Coast poking fun at everyone including itself with creative and quirky skits to introduce its lots.
The auction lot that had the most crowd appeal was “Magnum Force,” which ultimately reeled in $116,000 when vintners agreed to duplicate the $58,000 lot for the two top bidders. About 30 women took to the stage to introduce the lot, which began with a virtual car crash using cut-outs of a 1960s-era Mustang pink convertible and a Woody. What followed was a dance-off between “beach babes” and “surfer chicks.”
Bob Friese, who has a home in Sonoma and San Francisco, spent $58,000 on the lot that featured a 58-bottle collection of magnums from Sonoma vintners.
“I've had too much of the Benzigers' wine,” Friese joked. “I'm a grower with Jim Bundschu (of Gundlach-Bundschu Winery) and I know if I had been drinking Jim's wine, I would never have been this silly.”
Another skit that got the crowd's attention was “Beach Blanket Benziger” because several blond women danced on stage, slowly joined by men impersonating blond women with wigs and outrageous costumes. The lot, which raised $50,000, offered bidders the chance to attend a party at Imagery Estate Winery in Glen Ellen on July 9 and 100 people decided to partake, each paying $500 for a ticket.
Jean Smith from Oklahoma City bought two tickets for $1,000. “We just bought them and we might donate them to a friend or we might come back for the party because Oklahoma City doesn't have a wine valley,” she joked.
While Smith bought the Benziger lot on a whim, San Francisco attorney John Hinman was a methodical bidder winning a 20-bottle collection of Sonoma wine.
“I go for this lot every year,” he said. “It was $10,000 last year and this year it was $17,000 so that means the economy is almost 50 percent better.”
The economy's fluctuations didn't inhibit the bidding appetite of Bettie Hall, who spent upwards of $30,000 at the auction.
“We're just here to help them raise money,” said Hall, who has a house in Sonoma and one in Naples, Florida.
The 70-year-old bought the “Sex in the City” lot for $10,000 not because she wanted to have dinner with actor John Corbett, who plays Aiden in the movie, but because she was inspired to contribute. Of course she joked that the $4,000 shopping spree in San Francisco that came with the lot “is not a bad deal.” Hall also spent $13,000 to buy a lot offered by the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, which included a trip to Italy and wines made by the famed film director.
“The economy has affected us in other things but not in bidding because this is such a wonderful cause,” Hall said.
The live auction, which cost $500 per ticket, capped off the Sonoma Wine Country Weekend. On Saturday, the Taste of Sonoma event drew a crowd of 2,500, each paying $150 to sip and graze at MacMurray Ranch in Healdsburg.
The weekend, organized by Sonoma County Vintners and the Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Foundation, is designed to show off the county's bounty of food and wine while raising money for local charities that support students, children, farm workers and people in need.
“It makes us sad because the economy isn't what it should be,” Hall said. “But we really rally here.”
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