Napa Valley, and especially its wine industry, has a strong giving spirit. The ongoing array of fundraisers for our schools, hospitals, community organizations, and churches, coupled with the quality of wine donated and auctioned, has to constitute some kind of worldwide record.
This Valley truly believes in taking care of its own. Consider Auction Napa Valley, which has raised $145 million for local charities since it started in 1981. The idea behind auctioning off wine and travel donated by local vintners—along with other donations provided by non-winery partners like Bulgari and Riedel—is to take advantage of the Valley’s worldwide reputation and then use that to enhance the well-being of the Napa Valley community. The event shares some similarities with the Hospices de Beaune charity in France, where Burgundy wineries raise money for their local hospital. But Napa has taken the idea many steps further. It is an all-American experience—open to all who will pay the price of admission, flamboyant, and—most of all—a lot of fun. Plus we all drink some of the Valley’s best wines while raising money for our community.
Kathryn sits on the board’s Grant Review Committee. She and her fellow committee members make recommendations to the full board about which charities deserve to receive funds from the auction proceeds. A few years ago, the board decided to go deep rather than broad, so the auction now focuses on two principal areas: children’s education and community health. The goal is to make a significant impact in each.
To attract people who are prepared to donate serious money, the auction planners do whatever they can to make the experience special and unique. High bidders from the prior years are especially catered to. They’re given fancy cars, such as Bentleys and Rolls-Royces, to drive over the course of the week. They’re also wined (of course) and dined. We want them, and everyone else, to have a great time, to donate lots of money, to tell all their friends about this wonderful event, and to return the next year.
The festivities begin Thursday, with small private winery dinners in the company of winemakers and vintners for the title sponsors and those high bidders. These dinners are entertaining rather than formal. One year, our theme at HALL was the high school prom. Our staff dressed up as cheerleaders and pom-pom girls and the guests came in costume. Another year we hosted a Holly-Golightly-Breakfast-at-Tiffany’s dinner. Many of the women wore hats similar to the beautiful brimmed hat we all associate with Audrey Hepburn. Theme parties like these help get our dinner guests in a party mood before they even arrive, and give us the chance to provide potential bidders with extra motivation by introducing them to a representative from one of the benefiting charities. As much as we want to raise money for Napa nonprofit organizations, however, the immediate purpose for all of us who host these parties is for folks to have a wonderful time and to take home memories they will happily share.
Friday is the barrel auction, where 2,000-plus people taste the special blends—still in barrels—that many wineries put together to be auctioned. Barrel wines are tasted inside the cellar of the hosting winery. Non-barrel wines are poured outside, under tents where local restaurants serve samples of their food. The mood is always very upbeat and the weather is generally sunny and warm, so it is a fun afternoon for all. Folks grab glasses upon entry and amble from table to table, tasting wine, talking, and comparing notes with strangers.
The year we wrote this book, the Auction Napa Valley Barrel Auction took place at HALL St. Helena. People strolled through the old stone Bergfeld building winery to taste wine and preview items that would be auctioned off the next day. They sampled wine from the 200 barrels that lined two floors of our new tank building, and checked out large, electronic display boards that showed in real time the top ten bids and corresponding barrels. At the end of the day, the winemakers whose barrel earned the highest price popped some bubbly as people cheered and confetti showered down on them.
At midday, we passed the word that people might want to make their way down to the tented great lawn at the side of the winery. They didn’t know about the flash mob we had secretly been planning, in partnership with Festival Napa Valley.
Then, just past 1 p.m., clusters of “guests” from Volti Festival del Sole Chorale—positioned throughout the crowd with wineglasses in hand and looking, for all intents and purposes, like any of the other guests—broke into song. Conductor Ming Luke hopped up on top of a barrel and 40 musicians from the Festival del Sole Sinfonia, who were also scattered among the auction crowd, raised their instruments and began to play. As strains of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” filled the air, the listeners, overwhelmed by the surprise of musicians all around them, smiled, laughed, and dabbed their eyes. Wow. Mission accomplished.
Saturday is the auction itself—always the most dramatic day of the week despite the fact that there are only 300 invitees, compared to close to ten times that many at the barrel auction. This event is always held in the afternoon. When the oversized white tent goes up on the expansive Meadowood lawn, it is as if the Great Gatsby has returned to life. Every auction chair brings new flair to the party. One year all the participating vintners marched into the tent in line carrying a magnum of their wine which the guests at their table would enjoy. It was pretty impressive.
Since the auction lasts for hours, folks tend to get pretty hungry after a while. The year the Chappellets chaired the auction, the family offered catered hamburgers for all. You should have heard the roar. Fine food served with wine pairings is great, but fancy food can get boring too. A hamburger never found such a welcome environment. But since this is the Napa Valley auction, the hamburgers were presented by servers who arrived in dramatic lines and placed the trays on all the tables in concert.
During the auction itself, folks sit at tables spread throughout the tent. Volunteers pass continually through the crowd carrying wire baskets full of various bottles of great wine. In addition, many vintners bring additional wines from their cellars. You can always see Garen Staglin and Tim Mondavi, among others, walking table to table pouring their wines for guests in what can only be described as an all-around festive environment.
The auction is conducted on a stage and televised on closed-circuit as well, so everyone can see everything no matter where they are sitting. Each year, vintner Fritz Hatton is one of the auctioneers. Fritz, who happens to be a professional auctioneer, knows not only wine but also the people in the audience, so his calls are personal and as a result very effective. His humor, twinkle, and impish demeanor make everyone smile and, perhaps more importantly, pay attention. He bounces around the stage, calling out people’s names and talking about whatever crosses his mind, as well as, oh yes, the wine, or donated trip, or whatever he is auctioning off. It is a treat to watch.
When someone wins a bid, a huge hullabaloo ensues. Think horns and whistles and music and balloons, all brought to the winning table by an auction volunteer team with the offering vintner following right behind. Lots of fanfare and appreciation greet these folks who are bidding as much as six-figure amounts for their lot. With good reason. This money goes a very long way in our local charities.
The vintners are often at least as generous as the people who come to purchase. Every lot is donated by a winery. In addition, vintners often wind up being purchasers themselves.
One year Bob Mondavi offered his vest made of wine corks for auction. He came in wearing the vest and looking very uncomfortable. The vest did not move. It was bulky and, sorry, in our view not at all attractive. Koerner Rombauer of Rombauer Vineyards bought the vest for $95,000. It was pure generosity of spirit. We have seen Koerner many times since, but we have never seen the vest again.
Molly Chappellet spontaneously added her sculpture to another auction lineup. Since her family had chaired the auction that year, she had melded her interests in gardening, vineyards, and art in the décor she created using wooden posts from old vine trellises. This last-minute donation was one more example of the generosity of the Chappellet family.
One of the most moving parts of the auction was started by John Shafer of Shafer Vineyards several years ago. John thought folks did not need to have a specific item to bid on. They might just want to give money to the Valley’s charitable causes. So he launched the Fund a Need segment.
“Who will give $1,000 to Napa charities?” he asks. “Please stand and stay standing. Who will give $5,000? Who will give $10,000?”
And so it goes, up and up and up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. By the time he is done just about everyone in the place is standing. In 2015, that segment alone raised more than $2 million.
John Shafer is a real motivator. He is so generous himself that he makes it hard to say no. For example, as the leading fundraiser for OLE Health, the affordable healthcare delivery service for the Valley principally serving farm and cellar workers, John has been tireless in asking people, including us, for help. When he asks, we—like most everyone else—respond.
“Lunches with you are very expensive,” Kathryn once replied when he called to invite her out for a bite. “Perhaps you could just tell me what organization you are calling about because I know Craig and I would be glad to help.”
The auction raises serious money for the community, which is why everything is geared to make this a true luxury experience. In 2015, the cost for the auction premier package was $3,000 and the VIP package was $15,000. People can also buy $500 tickets for the day-long barrel auction.
The auction certainly helps market Napa. Some people will come for the experience, but then get to know the quality of the wines and hospitality of the Valley along the way. Still, the community goal of the weekend is always front and center for every vintner.
That giving spirit certainly does not stop at the auction. Garen and Shari Staglin, who have also chaired the auction and who set the fundraising record the year they did, have raised and donated $880 million to charity since they began farming their vineyard in 1985. That’s a lot of money—and doesn’t count their work for UCLA! While their main cause is supporting research into mental illness, a fair share of all that money has gone to Napa organizations. The Staglins are a force of nature as fundraisers.
Wineries across the Valley regularly host and contribute to fundraisers for local school, church, and community groups. Perhaps some of the best wine values anywhere can be found at these events. HALL, for example, hosts several charitable events each year, including its Cabernet Cook-off, where 15 to 20 charities team with local restaurants to create a dish with Cabernet Sauvignon. The community attends, votes for their favorites, and a good time is had by all. Nickel & Nickel hosts the V Foundation wine auction to raise money for cancer research. Charles Krug hosts Hands Across the Valley, raising funds for organizations that fight hunger in the Valley.
That’s just the start when it comes to wineries and charitable fundraising. Sutter Home has raised more than $900,000 to support the fight against breast cancer since launching Sutter Home for Hope in 2001. Humanitas Wines donates 100 percent of its profits to charitable organizations focusing on health, education, and affordable housing. The list goes on and on.
This generous Napa Valley tone was set by Bob Mondavi decades ago. A renegade who split from his family winery at Krug to start his own winery, he built Napa Valley into the world famous wine region that it is, while also shaping it to reflect his values.
As a couple, Margrit and Bob not only made Napa Valley, they were the soul of Napa Valley. We miss Bob now that he’s gone and continue to treasure Margrit. We will always remember that their friendship and their support filled our lives with joy, and helped us through some dark times during the planning phase of our St. Helena winery. And for that we will be forever grateful.