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Blogs / Local Buzz / Summer 2010 / A Glass Half Full

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A Glass Half Full

The Sun Valley Center for the Arts’s largest annual fundraiser, the Wine Auction, encourages residents to support the arts by attending wine tastings and other events, often coupled with food from the Valley’s top chefs, from Thursday, July 22, to Saturday, July 24, 2010.

The money raised each year by the Wine Auction provides the Center with more than half of its budget, which later supports art education and programming including dance performances, visual galleries and scholarships for local artists.

Now in its 29th year, the Wine Auction will offer its usual array of wine tastings, teachings, silent auctions and gourmet meals. The Auction opens this Thursday with the Vintner Dinners, dinners served in luxurious private homes, cooked by local chefs and accompanied with a variety of wines and the company of the vintners who craft them. A spot at the table for any of the Vintner Dinners requires pre-registration for each $600 seat.

On Friday, July 23, the Auction moves into the Riedel Wine Symposium, the Wine Auction Gala and the Junior Patron Evening.

The Riedel Wine Symposium will entail a 90-minute presentation by glassmaker Maximilian Riedel focused on the important role of stemware in wine tasting. Despite skepticism on the impact a glass can truly have, Christl Holzl, The Center’s Wine Auction Director, said she was astonished after attending the symposium and learning what a difference glassware can create.

Friday night, new Wine Auction patrons can meet and greet with appetizers at Ketchum’s Sego Restaurant during the Junior Patrons Evening and then join the Gala afterwards. The Gala will include silent auction bidding on an array of wines, dining experiences and travel packages while attendees will be served select wines and food prepared by Iron Chef America winner Beau MacMillan and Christopher Kostow of Napa’s The Restaurant at Meadowood along with Sun Valley’s best chefs.

Tickets to the Gala step down one notch to $500 a person and attendance to the Junior Patron Evening goes for $125 per patron.

Saturday, July 24, offers the less exclusive and more affordable events of the Auction’s three-day-run. Sommelier Fred Dame will lead a second wine symposium, concentrated on Pinot Noir varietals, which will also be priced at $125 a seat, and will be followed by the Wine Tasting Extravaganza at $40 a person and the Wine Auction Picnic and Concert for $80.

The Wine Tasting Extravaganza will be held at Dollar Mountain beginning at 12:30 p.m. and offer a seemingly endless assortment of wines from Washington, California and Idaho. Upon entering, attendees will have access to more than 100 wineries and can taste as many wines as they desire.

The Picnic and Concert combo will take place at the Warm Springs Ranch and boasts a meal with each item prepared by different chefs from the Valley. Ranging from salads made by SEGO, Rasberrys and the Brickhouse, ahi poke prepared by Globus and Lava Lake Lamb cooked two ways by The Ketchum Grill and CKs to desserts fashioned by Toni’s Ice Cream Co., Christina’s and The Chocolate Moose; the picnic will have something to offer for almost any taste.

The concert will feature the rockabilly music of Clinton Curtis throughout the picnic, and the meal will of course be accompanied by wine. Following the picnic and concert, the 29th Sun Valley Wine Auction will come to a close.

And, although promotions for the Wine Auction claim participating is the best way to support the arts, if you cannot afford the Wine Auction’s events or are not one of the many who delight in tannins on your tongue, don’t forget you can always donate directly to the Sun Valley Center for the Arts or show your support by attending any of the many plays, concerts or galleries put on throughout the year.