Aftermath…Picking Up the Pieces
It’s May already, and we’re still reeling from the frantic pace of the Wine & Food Fest events. It takes a while to get over something like that. Recovery is slow, but constant.
With Cyndi Kottkamp
By now, everyone knows that the weekend was a huge and gratifying success, raising over $750,000 for the Southwest Florida Children’s Hospital, and the pediatric nursing program at Edison State College.
Sidebar: a few months ago, Wine Spectator magazine published a list of the top 10 charity wine events of 2008. Of course, the Naples Winter Wine Festival topped the charts, but the interesting thing was this – the #10 auction raised $880,000. Given the fact that all charity wine events raised less money in 2009, we feel that we’re in shouting distance of making the list this year. Who’d a thunk it?
Debi Greenfield & Tony Beck from LA
But now that the checks have been written and presented with appropriate hugging, handshaking, and picture taking, we’re seriously under way in planning for next year.
Karen Feldman & Jim McCracken
Step one: build on our current success by attracting additional trustees. We’ve been doing that through a series of excellent wine dinners, and we’ve made several wonderful new friends. It seems that the more bottles we open, the more convivial everyone becomes. Go figure.
A (very) small sample of the Grand Tasting wines
Step two: Founding Trustee Dave Copham asked me the other day if I had confirmed all the vintners for next year. I said, “Huh?” But it has been on my mind, and time does fly, whether you’re having fun or not. So now seems like a good enough time to outline what we’re aiming for to make the event bigger and better next year, and to provide a wonderful experience for everyone who attends.
The first thing is to expand the scope of the wines that are served at the dinners and Grand Tasting. In 2008, all the dinner wines were from California and Oregon, which is by no means a bad thing, but I’m now making a serious effort to attract vintners from other lands. In fact, I just got off the phone with a major Italian winemaker, and extended a cordial and heartfelt invitation. We’ll see how that works out.
Lou Bernardi from Southern Wine & Spirits
The second thing is to gain the help and participation of some of the larger, well-known wineries, which, given our success this year, should be very possible. Don’t get me wrong …I’m sure everyone agrees that the vintners at our recent event were absolutely spectacular, and extremely generous as well. There ain’t no flies on any of those wines, and several of our friends have already been invited to return next year, along with some new boutique wineries who make fabulous juice in ridiculously limited quantities.
A quiet moment beween crises
But I’m in the process of networking to contact other winemakers, both here and abroad, who will help us bring the event to an even higher and more prestigious level.
There’s one aspect of the event that I’m planning on doing exactly the same way. That’s to present a selection of wines at the Gran d Tasting to please every palate, and hopefully lead to great new discoveries. From the feedback we’ve received, I think we accomplished that this year, but it can always be better. If anyone has suggestions about wine varietals or brands that should be included next year, please post a comment here.
We’ve learned a lot from this year’s event and its surprising success, and we’ll be building on that. Personally, I had no idea what I would be dealing with when I accepted this responsibility. Now that I’ve been through it once, I’m going to do it again anyway. I’m certain that the systems and procedures we’ve developed (mostly through trial and error, with plenty of trial and plenty of error) will be improved and streamlined, allowing us to offer an event next year that’s even more exciting for those who attend, and even more successful for the children of our area.