Auction Napa Valley offers grand packages

Ready for your whirlwind trip to Napa Valley, Los Angeles, Singapore and Thailand? There’s a package for that.

Auction Napa Valley is just weeks away, and the live auction packages for 2012 are as grand as ever.

Winning bidders of the Raymond Vineyards lot will embark on a seven day journey exploring the culinary delights and pleasures of different California and Asian cultures.From a quintessential Napa wine country stay at Raymond to a tropical palm plantation villa, guests will be serenaded with fine foods and wines from the US, Singapore and Thailand. The winners need not despair upon returning home, they will be showered with crystal from the new line of Chateau Baccarat.

Prefer to glimpse the grand glaciers of Alaska on a relaxing cruise? The Spring Mountain District Association, whose wineries produce wines of great depth and complexity in Napa Valley’s western Spring Mountain appellation, present a luxurious Alaskan cruise. Following the cruise, guests will be whisked mountain-top to share their stories with the Spring Mountain vintners at a game feast, before returning home.

Is dinner with an American football legend on your life’s to-do list? Rudd Winery and Casa Piena offer the chance to dine with four-time Super Bowl winner Joe Montana—the player who led the San Francisco 49ers to victories in four Super Bowls during the 1980s. He was also given the title of National Football League’s most valuable player three times, and retired with NFL playoff records for completions, yards, and touchdowns before being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

As if the 180 bottles that Rombauer Vineyards is auctioning as part of their package is not enough, the winning bidder of Rombauer’s lot will also receive a barrel of wine among other treasures.

Arietta, Chateau Boswell and Realm Cellars joined forces to offer a winning bidder a $10,000 shopping spree at San Francisco’s Saks Fifth Avenue. This is topped off with a cave dinner where star chefs are flown in for the occasion.

Have you always wanted to attend the Kentucky Derby? Now is the chance with Blackbird Vineyards adventure package. If a motor sport is more your thing, however, take a day of Formula 1 Race Car Training offered by Lokoya. The winner will then be whisked away on a plane to the Grand Prix in Monaco. Lest all that speed tires the winner out, he or she will spend time in Maui, Hawaii and Napa Valley to help them regain their sense of direction.

Whether you are sitting in a London flat, have two hours to kill during a flight layover, or are working at home on your computer, you can also bid on once-in-a-lifetime e-auction lots of wines and wine country experiences. There is no need to actually be in Napa Valley. The Auction Napa Valley e-auction lots are available for viewing now at auctionnapavalley.org.

Click away at the pages of adventures that wait. And not all packages require luggage. There are rare wine vintages to fill out holes in winery cellars and elegant dinners for two. E-bidding starts for real on May 27 at auctionnapavalley.org.

While winning bidders take home some pretty invaluable packages, they are also doing a world of good. Proceeds from Auction Napa Valley support health, youth, and affordable housing non-profit programs. To date, Auction Napa Valley has given $100 million to dozens of these organizations.