“All lives have equal value,” said Jessica Gasca, addressing the well-heeled crowd of almost 400 attendees in the ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara. “But equal in value does not mean equal in opportunity,” continued the owner of Story of Soil wines, speaking in her role as president of the board of directors of the Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation — the charitable umbrella under which the Santa Barbara Vintners Association conducts its philanthropic work. “We can help change those experiences. We can’t stand by as people suffer, not when we have the means to help.”
Those “means” are the biannual Santa Barbara Wine Auction. By the time the November 9 event concluded, $868,000 was raised in support of the Vintners Foundation’s mission, “Grounded in Giving.” Proceeds from the event will provide essential healthcare for medically underserved people through grants to Direct Relief and Community Health Centers of the Central Coast.
The black-tie event meant most people were dressed to the nines, excepting the few who had all the tux accouterments from the waist up, but jeans and boots from the waist down — they had to skedaddle from their winemaking duties in the valley to make it. For this gala is truly an evening that brings the wine community together in a spirit of giving and kindness. Andrew Firestone emceed and served as auctioneer, pointing out, “This isn’t the usual pretty crummy glass of chardonnay and a rubber-chicken dinner, not at all.”
Indeed, after a sparkling wine reception with oysters steadily shucked thanks to Bar Le Côte, the rest of the evening featured a four-course meal, including an elegantly composed fig and camembert salad from the Bacara’s own executive chef Rebecca Tillman; a Channel Islands crudo (With some salted/cured Granny Smith apple? How were these delicious brunoise delights prepared?) from chef Jason Paluska of The Lark; a grilled prime N.Y. steak with chanterelles and beef cheeks — hearty and ready to sing with whatever red wine you cared to drink — from Neal Fraser of L.A’.s Redbird; and an artful dessert construction billed a Chocolate Abstract, of contrasting textures and tastes including Foxen port, from chef Lincoln Carson, who’s done stints at Le Bernardin, Mes Amis, and Coast Range, among other kitchens.
Alongside that feast, each table had an assigned winery providing its pours — we were fortunate enough to delight in Piazza Family Wines all evening, with winemaker Gretchen Voelcker joining us for only her second night out since giving birth to her two-month-old. That’s the kind of draw the event has. Not that nearly every other wine luminary wasn’t in attendance, from Matt Brady to Greg Brewer to Bryan Babcock, to offer just three random B’s.
The event also paid tribute to the 2024 Vintner Honoree, Presqu’ile and its owners the Murphy Family. They have donated more than $1 million to Central Coast nonprofits since arriving in the region in 2007, to groups like the Boys & Girls Club and the Marian Regional Medical Center. “I feel like the body at an Irish funeral,” Madison Murphy quipped when receiving the award. “You’re not supposed to do or say very much, but you’re the reason for the party.”
Clearly another reason for the party was to laud the symbiotic relationship that the Vintners Association and Direct Relief has sustained since 2000. Those 24 years also line up with the tenure of Direct Relief’s president and CEO Thomas Tighe, who is stepping down at the end of the year. Not only did Tighe receive two standing ovations when he gave his talk to the crowd, but he also was brought to tears thinking of the work his group manages to do for agricultural workers in the Santa Ynez Valley and for those in the Middle East (he pointed out that Direct Relief was the only nonprofit recommended for its work by both Al Jazeera and the Jerusalem Post).
Moved, the crowd bid enthusiastically again and again on items ranging from a vertical of Sine Qua Non cult wines — for which advanced somm Lamar Engel was sure to note its first vintage included grapes from Bien Nacido Vineyard — to the commissioned painting by Pedro de la Cruz, “El Amor a La Vida,” a colorful celebration of harvest, life, and hope. And, therefore, a perfect emblem of the evening and the Foundation’s Grounded in Giving program.
See sbvintnersfoundation.org for more information.
