Your Fine Wine Sandestin-ation

If you are a wine industry VIP or a serious collector, no doubt you have next week blocked out in your calendar for the annual pilgrimage to the High Museum Wine Auction. Once a blip on the radar 17 years ago, the largest fund raising event for Atlanta’s art museum has morphed into one of the top-four wine auctions in the country. Last year, the auction raised $2.1 million.

Not up for the $400 seats at the auction or the $2,500 for the gala dinner on Friday night, or perhaps you just want to get out of town, then you might want to head south for a wine event with more little more sea breeze and a lot more suntan lotion.

The Sandestin (Florida) Wine Festival (April 23-26) started 23 years ago as an even smaller blip on winemakers’ calendars. In the early years, it may have started out as a wine festival on the beach, but it often devolved into something close to a Bacchanalian orgy by the time it was over. The Festival, held 300 miles south of Atlanta in the resort of Sandestin, has grown up a bit since then.

“It has not only grown in size, but the increase in quality has been exponential,” says Todd Vucovich, executive director of the Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation. “For example, this year we’re welcoming Dan Kosta of Kosta-Brown, Bill Phelps of Joseph Phelps, Tom Johnson of Silver Oak Cellars and the list goes on.”

Indeed, a lot has changed over the years for Sandestin. Attendees once bumped and elbowed their way along the skinny sidewalks in front of Shops at Sandestin. The event is now held in the spacious plaza of the Baytowne Wharf resort, which is better equipped to handle the 2,500 guests and has allowed event planners to offer things like a cheese-tasting pavilion. And you do need a little room when you’re pouring 700 wines from more than 100 producers.

While the number of attendees has grown and the location changed, a couple of my favorite things about Sandestin have stayed the same. First, if you get a ticket to the wine tasting, you get a 15 percent discount at the temporary wine shop just outside the festival grounds.

Now a word praise and warning about the temporary wine shop. If you’ve ever been to a wine tasting and were wowed by a couple of the wines you tasted, it can be a drag to go out in the world and find the bottle you liked so much. Not a problem at Sandestin. All the wines at the tasting are offered in the shop, which is housed under a small circus tent.

Here’s the warning: There is a small circus tent full of discounted wines just outside a wine tasting featuring 700 wines from 100 producers! I always try to keep my purchases to about a case, but I’ve yet to schlep fewer than two cases back home. I guess there are worse problems to have.

The other thing about Sandestin I like is that despite its Bacchanalian beginnings, it is now one of the most family-friendly wine events I’ve ever been to. Understandably, it’s not promoted that way, but when the event was held across the street, my wife, Eleanore, and I could sip glasses of beefy zinfandel while watching the dozens of kids create sand sculptures in the two playgrounds in the middle of everything.

When the festival headed across the street to Baytowne, things got better. Elise and Erika can easily follow mom and dad as they negotiate the aisles of wine booths or we can slip out of the main tasting area for lunch at the dozen or so nearby restaurants. Eleanore and the girls have been known to drift away from their more wine-centric husband/father to shop or catch a musical act on one of the two stages.

Last year, Elise regaled a small crowd with her gymnastics floor routine on the Grand Lawn, which sits at the heart of the festival. Mom and dad sipped on yet another beefy zinfandel and chatted with the owner of a local pilates center and ex-gymnast, who demonstrated a wobbly-but-well-executed roundoff herself.

The wine festival costs sixty bucks for one day ($90 if you go Saturday and Sunday). Of course, if you have several hundred dollars (or dozens of hundred dollar bills) burning a hole in your pocket, Vucovich wants to help you out. The Destin Charity Wine Auction, on off-shoot of the wine fest launched four years ago, has a long list of more upscale options that begin the Thursday prior the festival.

Much like the High Museum Auction, high-rollers can enjoy private dinners with celebrity chefs and winemakers; bid on amazing wines, dinners and trips during the live and silent auctions. Of course, it comes at a price. A mere $2,500 gets a couple into just about everything over the four days, including the Thursday night dinners prepared by nationally known chefs and held at palatial homes around Destin.

Again, like the High Museum Auction, the cause is good. In four short years, the Destin Auction has raised $2 million for eight children’s charities along Florida’s Emerald Coast. Last year alone, it raised $800,000.

“People want to come to Destin, especially during the spring,” said Vucovich, who hopes to see more Georgia license plates in the park lot this year. “Despite all the gloom and doom, you need to treat yourself on occasion. There is also a great need to help us out for a good cause. [The festival and auction] allows people to give themselves a break and help children in need all at the same time.”

For more information on The High Museum Auction and to buy tickets (including the Saturday night Big Finish party, $100), go to www.atlanta-wineauction.org. For more information on The Sandestin Wine Festival and Auction and to buy tickets, go to www.dcwaf.org or www.sandestinwinefestival.com.