Join the Fun While Doing Good -
Volunteer for Auction Napa Valley 2009!
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Volunteers are essential to the Napa Valley Vintners annual community fundraiser, Auction Napa Valley, and we couldn’t do it without these hard-working community members. The time, energy and dedication of every volunteer helps the NVV raise much needed funds for our local charities. We are proud that what's raised here stays here; all the proceeds from the Auction are distributed to non-profit organizations to help people right here in Napa County. In past years we have been fortunate to welcome bidders at Auction Napa Valley that have helped us give $85 million to Napa County health, youth development and affordable housing non-profits.
In these uncertain economic times, the NVV remains committed to supporting Napa County non-profits and has pledged to provide a minimum of $5 million this year to local non-profits focusing on health care even if Auction Napa Valley proceeds are dramatically reduced – which we fully expect will occur.
This year we will once again welcome our guests with open arms and offer our renowned hospitality, but we cannot do it without you! Auction Napa Valley and your volunteerism exemplify the spirit of neighbors helping neighbors.
Auction Napa Valley’s “Taste Napa Valley” Locals-Only Program
Keeping the Fun in Fundraising—Doing Good While Having Fun
Now more than ever, the programs that Auction Napa Valley funds—healthcare services, education and outreach for children, and access to fair and affordable housing—are in need of support to continue meeting not only the current but growing needs for their services.
We invite you to help us in continuing this generous gift to our community by participating in our opening event, Taste Napa Valley.
This year, being held at Robert Mondavi Winery on Friday, June 5th, Taste Napa Valley is a celebration of all the finest Napa Valley has to offer: its people, hospitality, food and, of course, wine, all enjoyed in an incomparable setting in the heart of the Valley. Come explore the outdoor Marketplace filled with Napa Valley finest wines and culinary delights, then head into the cool of the To-Kalon cellar for the hot Barrel Tasting & Auction. In the Vineyard Room, you’ll find the E-Auction encouraging bidding from around the world.
We’ve had great turnout from Napa Valley residents at the Taste Napa Valley event of Auction Napa Valley, and have made two changes to the community tickets available:
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All Taste Napa Valley Friday-only tickets are available to Napa County residents for: $250 per person
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The Friday ticket includes Taste Napa Valley where scores of restaurateurs and artisan food producers partner with more than 100 local wineries pouring outside in a festival setting with music—it’s the consummate food and wine event of the year. Inside the cellar is the rousing Barrel Auction where attendees can sample and bid on more than 100 wineries’ barrel futures and bid on E-Auctions lots along with bidders from around the world
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The Napa Neighbor discount for locals this year offers a discount on the ticket purchase price in the form of a credit on any successful bids. Napa County residents can apply up to $125 of their individual ticket price to their successful bid(s) on a barrel lot or e-auction lot (up to $250 per household, non-transferable).
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So now, not only will you have a great day in Napa Valley and be part of fundraising for your own community—you will more than likely take home some great wine as your added prize for living here!
Commonly Asked Questions for Taste Napa Valley 2009
Where is the Friday event taking place this year?
At Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville
Are there any locals-only special offers?
Absolutely--Auction Napa Valley is a great party, but it is a fundraiser first and foremost, with all proceeds benefitting the Napa County community. To keep the focus on the fundraising aspect of this event, we have moved how the locals-only discount is applied, which is to:
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Keep the focus on the fundraising aspect of this event
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Raise more funds for Napa County health, youth and housing non-profits—without a huge extra expenditure on the part of local Taste Napa Valley guests
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Allow the NVV to continue to offer Napa County residents a “locals only” perk
Are there a limited number of these locals-only tickets available as in the past?
No. This special offer is applicable to any and all Friday-only tickets purchased by Napa County residents.
How much are auction lots and how do I get in on the bidding?
Bidding on Barrel Auction lots starts at $175 per case (that’s less than $15 per bottle), and E-Auction lots start at $250. If you’ve purchased two tickets, there’s a very good chance you could be a successful bidder on one of more than 200 lots without spending any extra money—and come home with some incredible Napa Valley wine! Tip: Bidding early improves your chances of winning a lot at a lower price—and your bids, whether successful or not, put more funds into the Napa non-profit programs that need it.
And, new this year—take a bus and help reduce traffic.
When you purchase your tickets you will be asked to select where you would like to board a complimentary shuttle bus to take you to the winery—leave the driving to us and have a great time at our annual community Fun-drasier—we hope you’ll join us!
Volunteer in 2009
Volunteers are needed for the coming Auction Napa Valley taking place from June 4-7, 2009. To become a volunteer, please visit www.napavintners.com and create an account, which lets us know your interest in volunteering. Then in April, we will e-mail you to let you know that volunteer signups are open. In May, you will hear from your Steering Committee Chair with the details of your volunteer assignment. Good work that’s a lot of fun, we hope you’ll join us.
Volunteer as a Group! A Special invitation for Napa County Service Clubs
Are your members looking for a fun and rewarding community service activity? Consider volunteering as a club for Auction Napa Valley! There's a variety of ANV volunteer opportunities to suit your club’s mission and members schedules. Volunteering for ANV is a great way to increase awareness about your club, build camaraderie, and give back to our community during this always exciting fundraiser.
Helping Kids in the Classroom Through Adopt a School
The Napa Valley Vintners and the Napa County Office of Education collaborate on the nation-wide Adopt-A-School program. The goal of the program is to have NVV members adopt each of the 48 public schools (K-12) in Napa County. So far 37 schools have been adopted!
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V. Sattui winery hosted a field trip for 8th grader from Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School in St. Helena which focused on drawing correlations between core subjects - history, social sciences, language arts, mathematics, and science - into the real-world workplace situations. |
Saintsbury landscaped the front of their adopted school, Carneros elementary. |
Since 2000, the NVV has proudly “adopted” Napa High, 
Through this partnership, the NVV provides support through programs such as AVID which is designed to prepare students in the academic middle for four-year college eligibility and supporting school spirit through the Tribal Pride program.
For more information on the NVV Adopt-A-School program, please contact Anne Steinhauer at ASteinhauer@napavintners.com.
Napa Neighba’ - Spice Up Your 'Stay-cation'
Family and friends come from near and far to visit our beautiful Napa Valley so treat your guests and yourselves to the special insider’s connection to our world-renowned wineries with the Napa Valley Vintners’ Napa Neighbor program. With more than 100 wineries offering special tastings and discounts to Napa County residents, this is a great way to enjoy what folks from all around the world come to Napa Valley for—and it’s a great deal! Check out our Napa Neighbor page to see the list of wineries and their special offers to locals. You can also check out the website’s Winery Finder for its interactive map that helps sort Napa Valley wineries by those that have art displays, historic buildings, are dog friendly, offer picnic grounds or have wine caves to name just a few of the attributes by which one can search.
Make sure to bring your driver’s license or ID showing you are a Napa County resident and tell the winery staff you’re a “Napa Neighbor!”
Mother Nature has been very fickle this year providing us the driest January on record which is not good news for any of us, particularly the grapevines. Not only was the weather dry, but the temperatures were spring-like forcing vineyard crews to prune vines at breakneck speed before the dormant vines awakened for the year. Early vine swell leading to early bud break will leave the vines exceptionally vulnerable to spring frost.
Napa Valley relies solely on local water resources rather than Sierra snowpack, and if significant rainfall fails to come our way, the ground water and reservoirs storing water will only go so far, especially worrisome since the two previous years have been significantly below average in rainfall. What does that mean? If frost comes in any way like last year, growers will have to decide if they protect the crop at the budding stage, risking not having water later in the season to irrigate as reservoirs dry. Though most vineyards use very little irrigation during the growing season in a normal rainfall year, vines would need to be watered if conditions remain this dry.
On the brighter side of things, we are experiencing robust mustard seasons as the brilliant yellow flowers have benefited from warm, sunny days. Mustard flowers were introduced to California by the Spanish missionaries as far back as the 17th century as they ventured north scouting mission settlements. They sowed the seeds, whose blossoms at closer look resemble a cross, so they could find their way home—or so the legend goes. Today mustard is a volunteer cover crop that helps stabilize the soil between the vine rows helping to avoid erosion. Along with sown cover crops like fescues and rye, maintaining Napa Valley’s farmland is job one.
In a dry year, growers have to hedge their bets when it comes to cover crops. Many may notice that a lot of mowing is already taking place, way ahead of normal and that’s also because the season has been dry. Growers will want to reduce competition with the grapevines for water and nutrients, and mowing slows the uptake of water to the grasses allowing the vines to take priority. In wet years, the cover crops can grow tall and are not mowed until much later in the season, where it acts as a wick pulling excess moisture from the soil.
While January has been dry, February is starting to make up for the lack of rain. Average rainfall for Napa County for the month of February is 6.5 inches of which by February 15 we were at about 6.3 inches. All in all, it’s still too early to predict how the season will progress, so let’s all do a rain dance and hope for continuing rain!
And in the Winery…
Winter is always a busy time in the cellar as winemakers are beginning to bottle their lighter-boded white wines like Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc that will come to market in the early spring. In Chardonnay, the most widely planted white variety in Napa Valley, most winemakers have kept the various lots coming from unique vineyard blocks separate so far and are starting to think about how they will compose the final blend to get just the right nuance of flavor or house style they are looking for, sometimes twenty or thirty different lots are looked at individually and a fine mix of art and science will determine the final cuvee.
Red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, the most widely planted red varieties in the valley are finishing secondary fermentation known as malo-lactic. Here the fermentation process does not build alcohol as in primary fermentation, but it transforms, or rounds flavors. These wines will be racked to remove solid matter and returned to barrel for anywhere from ten to thirty months, again bases on house style.
This is also a busy time for owners and winemakers to be out in the marketplace across the country and around the world. Building and maintaining a wine brand is all about relationship and vintners use this time to “work the market,” meaning pouring their wines in person at, for example, a restaurant staff training in Chicago or for a sales team at their distributor in Dallas. The NVV is taking more than one hundred wineries on a market blitz of New York City with 35 events over four days to showcase the Napa Valley appellation and its legendary American wines to wine retailers, restaurateurs and wine-loving consumers to keep Napa Valley top of mind to this savvy and important domestic market. Additionally vintners are heading for international trade fairs in London and Germany where all the top wines of the world compete for the attention of trade and media. So while the vines are dormant, the vintners are hard at work!
Calendar
March 9-13, 2009 Taste Napa Valley: New York Market Blitz
Twice a year, the Napa Valley Vintners hits the road with the principals and winemakers from 80 or more member wineries, focusing each trip on one market, and will be visiting New York. The vintners will spend several days in New York, hosting a mix of trade and consumer tasting events and educational programs.
May 2, 2009 Afternoon in the Vineyards
The 9th annual collaboration between the Napa Valley Grapegrowers and the Napa Valley Vintners known as Afternoon in the Vineyards will take place Saturday, May 2, 2009 at vineyard sites from near Calistoga to American Canyon showcasing what's happening in the vineyards and in the wine industry to hundreds of Napa Valley neighbors. Stay tuned for site locations!
June 4-7, 2009 Auction Napa Valley
Auction Napa Valley was established in 1981 by the Napa Valley Vintners to raise needed funds for healthcare, youth services and affordable housing non-profits. We have been blessed over the years to host wine lovers from both near and far, bidders who have helped shape the Auction as the premier charity wine auction in the world--this must attend event convenes the first weekend in June each year. Since that first Live Auction, held as it is today on the lawn at the beautiful Meadowood Napa Valley, we have been able to give to our community more than $85 million.
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