Private donors donate wines to benefit at-risk children

Wines unavailable, anywhere, at any price are among the auction lots to be offered at the 2008 Naples Winter Wine Festival on Jan. 26.

Of the 72 lots, 19 will include extraordinary vintages from private donors’ wine cellars.

“For wine lovers, each of these lots is like a home run in baseball,” said Don Gunther, chair of the 2008 festival and trustee of the Naples Children & Education Foundation, the organization that founded the festival to benefit underprivileged and at-risk children. “We are very grateful to these private donors for contributing truly exciting collections, and we thank them for sharing their treasured wines.”

Highlights of wine lots from private donors:

• Lot 8, ‘61 Love Affair, holds a case of 1961 Chateau Haut-Brion. This vintage from Bordeaux consistently ranks in the top of the greatest Bordeaux vintages of the 20th century, and Chateau Haut-Brion has repeatedly received perfect 100-point reviews from wine critics. The wine was bottled at the Chateau itself, making it even more extraordinary.

• Lot 32, Burgundian Bedrocks, boasts a case of 1985 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, La Tache. The wine is encased in its original, unopened wood box. The auction catalog likens finding a full unopened case of 1985 La Tache as along the lines of discovering the Rosetta Stone. The lot also includes a bottle of 1985 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Romanee-Conti, a 100-point wine that has been described as “utterly mind blowing.”

• Lot 38, Of Time and Towers, presents five stellar examples from four decades of Latour, whose wines have been a Bordeaux benchmark for centuries. The lot contains an Imperial of the outstanding 1986 vintage and three-750ml bottles from each of the 1970, 1990, 2000 and 2002 vintages.

• Lot 47, Vertical Horizons, offers a 15-bottle vertical of Harlan Estate wine from 1990 to 2004. Harlan’s small-production wines, which are only available to the fortunate few on the winery’s mailing list, have been widely praised. Noted wine expert Robert Parker has said: “Harlan Estate may be the single most profound wine made, not just in California, but in the world.”

• Lot 67, California Titans, offers an expansive collection of Napa Cabernet superstars from Harlan Estate, Shafer Hillside Select and Colgin Cellars. Among the ultra-scarce and coveted wines in this lot are three impossible-to-find Magnums of Harlan Estate, a case of all four Colgin Cabernets from its legendary 2002 vintage and nine bottles of Shafer’s Hillside Select from its chart-topping 2001 and 2002 vintages.

For more informationcall the festival office at 888-837-4919.

Posted: 01|15|08 at 9:06 am. Filed under: Events.