BELLEVUE, Wash. — The special collections of Washington wines are a popular auction offering every year at the “Celebrate Washington Wine” black-tie gala and auction benefiting the Washington State University Viticulture and Enology Program. The tenth annual “Celebrate Washington Wine” gala will be held on Saturday evening, Jan. 22, at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville.
Retired president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and WSU regent Scott Carson of Federal Way, and Washington Trust Bank chairman and CEO Peter Stanton of Spokane, will co-chair the CEO Collection for 2011. Carson has been a regent since 2007 and retired from Boeing in 2009. Stanton has been with Washington Trust for several years, and chairman and CEO since 2000.
The CEO Collection features a unique assortment of Washington wines selected by business executives around the state who contribute a bottle or more of their favorites.
This will be the second year for the popular Washington Women’s Wine Collection, an assortment of favorite wines with connections to women donated by women in the state’s wine and grape growing industries, as well as contributions from women who are business and community leaders.
Joy Andersen, head winemaker at Snoqualmie Wines in Prosser, is chairing this year’s Washington Women’s Wine Collection. Andersen is a Washington wine pioneer, being one of the first women to enter the industry. She started her career nearly 30 years ago when there were only 24 wineries in the state.
All proceeds of the Women’s Wine Collection will provide scholarship support for women in the WSU Viticulture and Enology Program. Proceeds of the CEO Collection will go to support the endowment for the chair of the department.
The collection chairs are lending their names to soliciting an extensive and unusual collection of Washington wines for each collection for the live auction. Each bottle contributed will bear a tag crediting its donor.
Contributions to either collection, or other donations for either the silent or live auctions at the gala, can be made online. The website is also where you can learn more about the event, register to attend and link to information about WSU’s viticulture and enology program: http://www.wineauction.wsu.edu.