Wine leads the way at children’s charity auction

Wines from Château Haut-Brion and Napa Valley estates helped raise over US$12 million for disadvantaged children at a charity auction this week in Florida.

The top selling wine lot was a console of Haut-Brion, which fetched $1.1m and featured eight rare vintages from the château including 1935, 1945, 1961 and 1990 displayed in a case designed by Viscount Linley.

Haut Brion’s owner, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, attended the three day festival held at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort alongside other acclaimed vintners.

Further top wine lots included a 35 bottle lot of Haut-Brion that spanned 84 years, which sold for $320,000; a vertical featuring a bottle from every vintage produced at Rutherford Dana Estates sold for $240,000 and a collection of Shafer’s Hillside Select fetched $220,000.

Other lots sold over the festival included a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG ($450,000), an 11-day trip to Italy for eight people with a four-day stay at the Bulgari Hotel in Milan ($400,000) and Centre Court tickets at Wimbledon and invitations to Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara Ball in Windsor later this year ($320,000).

The $12m raised at this year’s festival means that the event has so far raised $106.7m for local children’s charity Naples Children Education Foundation since 2001.