Recession puts a cork in lavish Napa charity

The diamond-draped denizens of Auction Napa Valley don't blink at forking over hundreds of dollars for top labels like Harlan Estate and Colgin. But wine expert Kevin Zraly moved the drinking quotient down a peg when he took the stage Saturday night at St. Helena's Meadowood resort.

"How many of you can finish this jingle?" Zraly asked. "Riunite on ice ..."

The crowd took a break from sipping their $100 Cabernets to cheer.

The recession has been looming over Wine Country for months. By the time its glitziest evening of the year rolled around, expectations - if not overt displays of wealth - had clearly been reined in. Even so, last-minute displays of generosity surfaced to boost the evening's top lot to more than $1 million.

Planners booked Zraly, creator of the popular "Windows on the World" wine course, as a deliberately lower-key name than in years past, when Jay Leno and Dana Carvey came to warm up the crowd and loosen up their wallets.

Napa's most glamorous weekend witnessed a clear retrenchment from recent years, when bidding wars were common and Silicon Valley cash flowed freely. There were fewer seats. Many high-rollers stayed home. But the smaller scale also reminded many longtime residents of the old days, before what began in 1981 as a modest daytime auction became one of the nation's most lavish charity blitzes.

"It's sort of like the auctions of yore," said Caren Hatton of the Arietta winery, wife of the evening's auctioneer, Fritz Hatton. "People are here because they want to be here."

The lack of deep pockets took an obvious toll. The auction's final haul was cut in half, to $5.66 million down from a near-record $10.35 million last year and the lowest number since 2004, when a disappointing $5.3 million result prompted major changes, including a hike in ticket prices to winnow attendance of the Saturday gala down to top-dollar bidders. The proceeds go to health care and various nonprofits throughout Napa Valley.

If there was any consolation, results were by no means out of line with other charities. Napa topped its sometime rival in philanthropy, the Naples Winter Wine Festival in Florida. Naples saw its take this year slashed to just over $5 million from $14 million in 2008.

Help from abroad
In a familiar scenario to many U.S. executives nowadays, help appeared to come from abroad. The top-earning lot, which earned $1.1 million, was a tour of both Napa Valley and Tuscany from Italy's Piero Antinori, who in 2007 unveiled a Napa winery, Antica. The second-highest lot, at $400,000, featured an extensive tour of Burgundy assembled by vintners Garen Staglin and Larry Hyde, the latter of whom has a joint project with one of France's top vintners.

"Totally unexpected!" Antinori blurted out after his offering became the evening's big win. "It's the first time that we have a lot, and a wine that is practically unknown on this stage."

These were rare high points on a night when many vintners left early. For the first time in years, tickets for the full weekend, at $2,500 per person, didn't sell out.

The quieter setting did not go unnoticed by VIPs who had been courted for months. Though trying to project a more humble tone - wooden pallets were used as decorations next to the crystal stemware - Napa's elite still spared no expense. Celebrity chefs were flown in for Saturday's dinner, including Chicago's Charlie Trotter, who served Tasmanian ocean trout with braised veal tongue.

Finding bargains
Bargains could be had. Last year, six magnums of cabernet sauvignon and a dinner from Screaming Eagle, a winery that makes what is arguably the valley's most expensive wine, went for $500,000. This year, the Screaming Eagle lot captured a more humble $80,000.

"I think everything's much lower," said Myra Haley of Florida, who walked away with a diamond necklace, cooking classes, wine and a series of dinners from Vineyard 29, a relative bargain (in Napa terms) for $65,000. "It's not as crowded this year as it was in the past, and the bids are lower this year, but I mean, it's for a great cause."

A regular attendee, Haley said she wasn't sure if she would return. Many familiar faces chose to sit this year out, including last year's top bidder, Shanghai entrepreneur David Li, and perennial high bidder Joy Craft of Woodside.

If out-of-towners were paddle shy, the vintners themselves were in a mood for generosity - buying the night's top two lots. Staglin's Burgundy jaunt yielded a top bid of $200,000 from none other than Hyde's fellow vineyard owner Lee Hudson; it was doubled when Staglin's friend, former Symantec CEO John Thompson, paid to join the trip. The evening's top lot, from Antinori, was won by Mary Miner, owner of Oakville Ranch Vineyards, for $400,000. It was nearly tripled when two other couples joined in.

Some attendees suggested this year might signal an end to the displays of largesse that have defined the auction of late. "The days of million-dollar bids are over," predicted San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, seated at the Plumpjack Winery table with his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and Gordon Getty.

And the vintners had clearly steeled themselves, even holding private discussions beforehand to lower expectations. Two years ago, the group pledged to local charities a minimum donation of $5 million annually for five years. The weekend's results just cleared that, leaving organizers satisfied if not beaming.

"No one expected to shatter any records, but the outpouring of generosity from our bidders, vintners and community is heartwarming," Janet Trefethen of Trefethen Vineyards, this year's auction chairwoman, said in a statement.

Intimate setting
Further evidence of the low-key approach was found in the setting of Friday's public tasting, originally devised as a sort of compensation to neighbors for a weekend of traffic jams. After years at the massive Sutter Home facility in St. Helena, the party was moved to the more intimate setting of the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville, where 2,500 attendees tasted wine from the barrel and snacked on ribs and canapes. Even there, though, grumbling could be heard about a $250 ticket price that, for the first time, wasn't discounted for locals.

Later that evening, wineries turned on the charm with lavish parties. At the Staglin winery in Rutherford, chefs from the Mandarin Oriental hotels prepared dishes like lamb with basil mousse and morels for nearly 40 guests. Garen Staglin hoped the feast would help put bidders in a mood to spend.

"I think the motto of this event is, it's OK to have fun while doing good," he said. "If we do our job of providing the best hospitality and experience, usually good things happen."