Wine auction
sets new standards
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
While some folks watched the sky and
fretted about rain over the weekend, others gathered under a tent and on what
turned out to be a very sunny golf fairway for the Sun Valley Center for the
Arts Wine Auction and related events.
The auction’s events were well attended
and much excellent wine was sampled, bought, bid on and consumed.
Most remarkably, this year at the Auction
on Friday, July 25, a record amount was raised—$602,000—to support the Sun
Valley Center for the Arts.
Highlights of the auction included an
appearance by Dick Grace of Grace Family Vineyards, with Hailey resident Jazmin
Osornio. Two years ago he bought one of the young student’s art work and had it
etched on a six-liter bottle of Grace Family wine, which was eventually
auctioned off for $18,000. Osornio is a student at the Center’s popular
bilingual art classes for students.
Another art student, Amy Rivera, sang "On
My Own" from "Les Miserable" to the large gathering preceding the bidding for
the Center’s scholarship fund.
Five bottles filled with a selection of
fine wines with scenes of Baldy on them caused a bidding war and finally reached
$26,000. David Reynolds was the auctioneer and Mike Murphy was the color
commentator for the evening. Between the heat and the precipitation, it was a
more casual affair than in years past.
Though it rained most of the morning on
Saturday, the sun came out in the afternoon for the Wine Tasting Extravaganza
under the tent at River Run and the picnic at Big Wood Golf Course.
At the tasting, boutique wineries turned
many heads who were looking for new selections for their wine cellars, including
award winning wineries Hunt Cellars, Shafer, Ridge Vineyards, DeLille Cellars,
Stonefly Vineyard, Dunham Cellars, K Vintners, Merry Edwards, Phantom Hill and
the new Frenchman’s Gulch bottled in Ketchum.
And as usual the Wine Auction Picnic
catered by Bigwood Bread and Mountain Pride was a lively party on a Big Wood
fairway, with entertainment by Paul Tillotson and his trio. Smooth finish to a
great weekend.