Napa Valley Auction Sets Record on a Day of Wine--and Shirts

ST. HELENA, Calif. — Wine-lovers literally bought the shirt off Robert Mondavi’s back Saturday to break the record for money raised at the 11th Napa Valley Wine Auction, staged to raise funds for four local hospitals.

Needing just a few thousand dollars to break the old record of $847,000 for a single auction, set two years ago, Robert and his son Michael, this year’s chairman, began to sell their wardrobes. Robert’s shirt went for $2,800, and Michael’s multicolored, grape-bedecked vest sold for $3,000 to put the auction over the top with total bids of $855,000.

Most of the wines sold were multiple-bottle lots. Especially popular were large bottles--magnums, imperials, jeroboams--and notably those encased in specially designed furniture such as display cases, tables, wooden boxes, racks and rotating pedestals. Many of the bottles were hand-painted or etched.

Hubert Opici, a wine wholesaler from Lake Park, Fla., paid the most for a single lot, $40,000 for 25 vintages of Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignons, signed by the vintner and dating to 1966, the year the winery was founded.

Wines--and clothing--donated to the auction by the Mondavi family sold for more than $100,000, nearly 12% of the auction’s total.

Highest overall bidder was John L. Hern, an investment counselor from Houston, with total bids of $86,900. Among his bids: $22,000 for 10 giant-sized bottles of Diamond Creek Cabernets.