Naples Winter Wine Festival Raises Nearly $16 Million for Children (Wine Spectator)

Live-auction bidders at nation's top charity wine auction raised almost $13 million for the Naples Children & Education Foundation

Photo by: Eric Strachan/Courtesy Naples Winter Wine Festival

Festival trustees Don and Darlene DeMichele, center, celebrate during the live auction action.

The nation's top charity wine auction raised nearly $16 million last week. Murky weather did not dampen the excitement at the 2019 Naples Winter Wine Festival, held Jan. 24–27 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. Saturday's live auction raised nearly $13 million, narrowly surpassing last year's $12.8 million. And with online auction results still coming in, the event total could eventually exceed $16 million. Since its 2001 inception, the festival has raised more than $191 million for children in need in Collier County, Fla.

A vertical wine tasting and luncheon on Thursday, starring Burgundy's Maison Joseph Drouhin and Oregon's Domaine Drouhin, kicked off the weekend. That was followed by Meet the Kids Day and 18 different vintners dinners on Friday, each showcasing celebrity chefs, such as Charlie Palmer and Tom Colicchio, and more than 30 winemakers, including honored vintners Daphne and Bart Aruajo of Accendo Cellars in Napa.

The excitement persisted during the event's live-auction main event, featuring 60 lots offering a range of experiences including fine wine, luxury cars and a trip to the 2020 Olympics. The live auction's Fund-a-Need lot, earmarked for children's mental health initiatives, raised almost $3 million.

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Other top wine lots included a four-person visit to Bordeaux's five first-growths, and bottles from the 1982 vintages of Château Haut-Brion, Château Latour, Château Margaux and Château Mouton-Rothschild and a five-liter bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild's 1982. The lot sold for $240,000. A lot featuring eight rare double magnums of Screaming Eagle's first Cabernet Sauvignons, from 1992 to 1999, sold for $350,000.

Four couples won the chance to join Shahpar and Darioush Khaledi of Napa's Darioush winery aboard a luxury yacht for a cruise along the coasts of southern Italy and Croatia, and four double magnums of Darioush Darius II Cabernet Sauvignon 2015. The lot sold for $400,000.