New Napa auction

Wines & Vines, July, 2005 by Tina Caputo

This year, Napa Vintners added a new event to its annual wine auction line-up: the Friday Auction & Festival. Unlike the hoity-toity Saturday auction, the Friday fest was a low-key community affair, with walk-around wine tasting, fabulous finger foods prepared by local restaurants and a barrel auction.

Tickets were priced at $150, with a discounted price of $75 for locals. (Compare that to the whopping $7,500 per couple rate--a $5,000 increase over last year--for the main auction package, and it seems downright cheap!) I have to say, I found the "poor folks' auction" to be more fun than the main event (that is, from what I remember about it from previous years). The Friday festival was part of NVV's efforts to revitalize the auction and give the glitzy Naples Winter Wine Festival some real competition. Judging from the record-setting $10 million raised by the auction events, the overhaul is paying off.