Naples FL has a winter wine festival every January. This year should be the most ostentatious and over the top yet. All those big bonuses from Wall Street, etc. loom large over this event. I go, but usually just to a private wine dinner at someone's home. No bids on Screaming Eagle for me. Would there even be a sip for our $20 here? Probably not.
ITEMS FOR BID AT THE NAPLES WINTER WINE FESTIVAL
It's good to be rich. Here are some of the glitzy items the rich and famous will bid for next month. Most of them feature bottles of rare and expensive wine:
• Perfect Anatomy: A walk-on role in the hit ABC TV show "Grey's Anatomy" and an insider's visit to the set. Plus, two nights for two couples at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and six tickets to Disneyland (including a private tour guide).
• Pebble Beach Rocks: Three days of golfing for six people at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, Calif. Includes accommodations at the oceanfront home of Chris Sullivan, chairman of the Outback Steakhouse restaurant chain.
• Good Things Come to Those Who Bid: Two-day, one-night trip for six people to New York, including a stay at The Ritz-Carlton and breakfast with Martha Stewart at her estate in Bedford, N.Y. Afterward, the bidders fly with Stewart for lunch at her home in Seal Harbor, Maine, plus a three-night stay at Clapboard Island.
• Featherless Flight: A two-year lease on a Hawker private jet. The lease allows up to 50 hours of flight time per year—25 on a Hawker 800XP and 25 on a Hawker 400XP.
• Uncork and Unwind with the Sundance Kid: Dinner with actor Robert Redford, lifetime membership in exclusive wine club Napa Valley Reserve in St. Helena, Calif.
• Argentine Sun & Wine Adventure: Seven-day trip to Argentina for two couples. Includes exclusive tour of Vista Flores vineyard in Mendoza, and a guided tour of the Andes mountains.
• Top-Rated And Top-Down: The bidder gets to be the first person in the United States to own the highly anticipated new convertible by Rolls-Royce. It's so new, the car hasn't even been named yet, festival organizers said. It goes on sale nationwide in fall 2007.
• Online Wine: For the first time this year, the wine festival is starting a special lot for Internet bidding. The offering is a 2003 Chateau Montelena Winery Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Saks in the City, Clubs in the Country: Trip for eight men to golf for four days at Scotland's renowned golf courses, the Old Course of St. Andrews (below) and the Carnoustie Golf Club
• Trip for eight women to New York City, where each will get a $10,000 shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue. Spa treatments at the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa and tickets to a hot Broadway show. Lunch with Anna Wintour, legendary editor of Vogue magazine.
Doubtless I'll have to see the Rolls parked in front of Cafe Lurcat or Bice in March after some 30ish trader wins the bid. LOL. MP |
