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Naples pops $8 million at auction
The richest wine charity… What recession?
Wine lovers at the 10th annual Naples Winter Wine Festival in Naples opened their wallets and hearts in a big way, chipping in $8 million for troubled children across Collier County, reversing two years of declining receipts.
The results from bids on bottles of rare wines, luxury trips and the like was $3 million more than last year, when the auction felt the biggest pinch of the recession . It’s also substantially more than the annual auction in Napa Valley ($5.9 million last year) making it one of the richest wine charities in the world and rivaling the famous auction at the Hospices de Beaune in Burgundy.
The top selling wine lot of the day was $150,000 bid for four 9-liter salmanazars of Ch. Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. The chateau ‘s proprietor, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, had initially donated two bottles from the 2005 vintage, but after visiting the children’s charities supported by the auction, he doubled his lot adding two virtual salmanazars of the new 2009 vintage not yet bottled.
“I think the 2009 will be among the finest vintages we’ve made in two centuries,’’ Prince Robert told me.
Other top wine lots included:
2005 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa) $1500.00 on Pre-Order at B-21
$140,000 for sixteen doublel magnums of great Burgundies donated by Baseball’s Rusty Staub.
$120,000 Harland Estates , 94 97, 2001, 2002 donated by the Harland’s who were this year’s honored.
$65,000 for 12 bottles of Screaming Eagle, 1999-2005’
$100,000 for 30 Burgundies, including nine 2005 DRC
$80,000 for 100 bottles of topo Australians, including verticals of Penfolds Grange and Hill of Grace.
$90,000 for four 5- and 6 liter bottles of Araujo Estate with dinner at the French Laundry.
$50,000 for an eleven year vertical of Lail Vineyard’s rare J Daniel Cuvee.
Of the 61 lots at auction some included wine together with trips to Thailand and New York, cruises, Nascar passes and even a walk-on role on the sitcom Modern Family, and they drew big money as well. The top non-wine lot brought $440,000 for a weeklong cruise on a 170-yacht in the Mediterranean.
Francis Rooney, who chaired this year’s auction said the group never predicted numbers for this year’s auction given the tougheconomy so he was delighted that 500 people came up with $8 million.
“I’m gratified that this community dug so deep.’’
- Chris Sherman
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