Florida wine auction takes pole position over Napa
February 1, 2007
Howard G Goldberg
The Naples Winter Wine Festival has again set an American record for charity auctions.
Bidders at the Florida charity auction on 27 January generated US$16.5m, breaking the 2006 auction's US$12.2m record.
The festival, in affluent Naples, a resort on western Florida's Gulf of Mexico coast, has raised US$55.26m for local children's charities in seven years.
'When Naples Trumps Napa' - a headline on a St. Petersburg Times report on the festival - captured the rivalry between the Naples festival and Auction Napa Valley, scheduled for 7-10 June.
For most of its 26 years, Napa's sale has been the wine world's premier charity fund-raiser, but Naples's auction has been surpassing it.
Last year Naples made US$12.2m compared to Napa's US$8.4m.
In 2005, Naples generated US$11.1m, Napa $10.5m.
The California vintner Anne Colgin, who with some 31 other producers attended what the St. Petersburg newspaper called the 'spendathon,' was an auctioneer.
Glitz, glamour, celebrities and a party atmosphere prevailed as the celebrated chefs Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck and Daniel Boulud circulated among about 550 guests, many of them millionaires, under a tent at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.
Although wine was dominant, other lots included fancy cars and travel and dinner packages. Double magnums of 2001, 2003 and 2004 Pingus donated by Peter Sisseck of Dominio de Pingus fetched US$100,000. A double magnum of 2000 Château Latour donated by Latour went for US$70,000.
In such auctions, philanthropic, status and other social motives join bidders' customary speculative and drinking reasons that send prices skyward.
Statisticians do not conventionally factor prices paid at these events into comprehensive annual results of commercial auctions.
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It is interesting that people want to emphasize the competition between these two events. Actually, a Napa Valley vintner was one of the original organizers of the Naples auction. He invited several of his Napa Valley vintner colleagues to join him in his effort to raise money for the Naples auction. I believe some of the original donors were Gargiulo, Swanson, Colgin, and Staglin, among others. One vintner has noted that approximately 35 to 40% of the revenue from the Naples auction is from Napa Valley vintners' wines. Perhaps what should really be celebrated is the fact that vintners from the Napa Valley have chosen to support so fully not just their own wine auction, with Auction Napa Valley, but that they also are so generous with their support for other auctions across America, including the Naples Auction. Mary Rocca, Rocca Family Vineyards, Napa, California, USA
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