ATLANTA, December 18, 2006 – The High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction today announced its special guests for the 15th-annual auction, “Wine is King: A Highly Royal Benefit,” scheduled for March 21 through 24. Legendary vintners Jim and Bo Barrett of Chateau Montelena will be the Auction’s Guests of Honor, and world-renowned chefs and cookbook authors Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, Alice Medrich and Anne Willan will be Special Guest Chefs for the Gala Dinner Dance. All three are members of Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international organization of women leaders in the food, beverage and hospitality professions.
“We are honored to welcome Jim Barrett and his son, Bo—two ‘kings’ in the world of wine—and three ‘royal’ members of Les Dames d’Escoffier to this year’s Auction,” said Woodie Wisebram, the High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction Manager. “This year is an extraordinary landmark for the Wine Auction. Not only is this the Auction’s 15th anniversary, but also we are celebrating our partnership with the Louvre. With a cadré of special vintner guests from the world’s major wine regions and notable Les Dames d’Escoffier chefs, this year’s festivities will be truly magnificent.”
Serving as the Auction’s Guests of Honor are longtime friends and participants of the Auction. Jim and Bo Barrett own the renowned Chateau Montelena in Napa Valley, where Bo is the winemaker. Made famous by the 1976 “Judgment of Paris,” the legendary tasting competition where the Barrett’s 1973 Chardonnay beat four white Burgundies and six other California Chardonnays, Chateau Montelena continues to reign as one of the world’s top wineries.
The Auction’s three Special Guest Chefs will join forces to prepare a grand feast for the Gala Dinner Dance on Friday, March 23. Lidia Matticchio Bastianich is known as the “First Lady” of Italian cuisine in the United States. She is a cooking show host, cookbook author and operates several notable restaurants, including Manhattan’s Becco, Felidia and Esca. Known as the “Chocolate Queen,” Alice Medrich is a master of pastry and baking arts. Renowned for her ingenious desserts, she is a two-time winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for Cookbook of the Year, and founder of the well-known San Francisco-based chocolate company, Cocolat. Anne Willan is a classic French culinary authority who has written over a dozen internationally published cookbooks. She has served for more than 25 years as the founder and director of La Varenne, the bilingual cooking school housed in the 17th-century Chateau du Fey in Burgundy, France. She received the International Grande Dame Award in 1995.
2007 High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction
The 2007 Wine Auction, organized by co-chairs Robin Howell and Katie Johnson include the Artist Dinner hosted by Thomas and Vanessa Arvid on March 21 and a Trade Tasting and 15 Winemakers Dinners on Thursday, March 22. Events on Friday, March 23 include Premier Tasting Seminars and the Gala Dinner Dance, held under festive big top tents in Atlantic Station, featuring a Champagne Louis Roederer Reception.
The events culminate on Saturday, March 24 with the Vintners’ Reception and Live Auction, and conclude with The Big Finish (formerly Red, White & NEW) in the evening. Teaming up again to wield the gavel for the Live Auction are esteemed wine auctioneers Michael Davis of Hart Davis Hart Wine Co., Chicago, Ill., and Ursula Hermacinski of Screaming Eagle and Jonata Wineries, Santa Barbara, Calif. For more information about specific events, please visit www.atlanta-wineauction.org.
The 2007 High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction is made possible through the generous support of the exclusive Presenting Sponsor, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Premier Corporate Sponsors include Atlantic American Bankers Fidelity, Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Magazine, Delta Life Insurance, Geographics and Wachovia Wealth Management. Atlantic Station is the Site Sponsor.
About Chateau Montelena
Established in 1882, Calistoga-based Chateau Montelena is credited for helping California wine earn worldwide recognition. In 1976, Chateau Montelena was one of two Napa wineries to come out on top in a blind tasting held for a who’s-who of the French wine and food establishment gathered at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Paris. Chateau Montelena produces Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Riesling varietals. The winery has been owned and operated by the Barrett family since 1972. Please visit www.montelena.com for further information.
Les Dames d’Escoffier International
Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) is an organization of women leaders who create a supportive culture in their communities to achieve excellence in the food, beverage and hospitality professions. Members of LDEI chapters provide leadership, educational opportunities and host philanthropic events within their communities. As the premier organization for women in diverse careers across the food, beverage and hospitality industries, LDEI grows its membership selectively, by invitation only. For more information, please visit www.ledi.org.
High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction
The 2006 High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction set records as the most successful live auction in its 14-year history, bringing in revenues of more than $1.3 million. Total event revenues rose to more than $2.6 million (a 16% increase over 2005’s record-breaking amount of $2.25 million). Silent auctions brought in more than $150,000. Last year also marked the Wine Auction’s first time in the Atlantic Station neighborhood, the heart of Atlanta’s cosmopolitan Westside and the city’s newest location for community events.
Founded in 1993, the High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction is the single largest fund-raising event for the High Museum of Art and ranks as one of the top-five charity wine auctions in the country, drawing prominent winemakers from the U.S. and around the world. The funds generated by the Wine Auction, which amount to more than $10 million in the last 14 years and $1.8 million in 2006 alone, are a significant contribution to the Museum's acquisitions, exhibitions and educational programming.
High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, is the leading art museum in the southeastern United States. With more than 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High Museum of Art has an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American art, significant holdings of European paintings and decorative art, a growing collection of African American art, and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography and African art. The High is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the only major museum in North America to have a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of folk and self-taught art. The High’s Media Arts department produces acclaimed annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic cinema. In November 2005, the High opened three new buildings by architect Renzo Piano that more than doubled the Museum’s size, creating a vibrant “village for the arts” at the Woodruff Arts Center in midtown Atlanta. For more information about the High, please visit www.High.org.
The Woodruff Arts Center
The Woodruff Arts Center is the largest arts center in the Southeast as well as one of the four largest in the nation. The Woodruff is unique in that it combines five visual and performing arts divisions on one campus as one not-for-profit organization. Founded in 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art, Young Audiences and the 14th Street Playhouse.
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Media contacts:
Cassandra Champion Streich
Senior Manager of Public Relations
Tel: 404-733-4436 | Fax: 404-733-4529
E-mail: cassandra.champion@woodruffcenter.org
