Santa Barbara Wine Auction bidding to be gala benefit at the Bacara
Jessica Gasca, Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation president and Story of Soil owner and winemaker, visits a farm where workers receive medical attention from Community Health Centers. The foundation is overseeing the Santa Barbara Wine Auction 2022, which will raise funds for CHC and Direct Relief, a Goleta-based nonprofit that provides medical aid around the world.
Restaurateur and philanthropist Chef Daisy Ryan, co-owner of Bell’s in Los Alamos and Bar Le Côte in Los Olivos, has been named the Santa Barbara Wine Auction’s 2022 featured chef and will develop the menu for the black-tie gala Friday and Nov. 12 at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara.
“My fellow vintners and I are more than just fans of Chef Daisy’s amazing food,” said Jessica Gasca, Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation president and Story of Soil owner and winemaker. “We are inspired by how she gives back to our community as both a trailblazing business leader and a philanthropist with her charity, Feed The Valley, that works to fight food insecurity in the Santa Ynez Valley. We are excited to partner with her for this year’s gala.”
The Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation is founded on the ethos “Grounded in Giving,” and the biennial Santa Barbara Wine Auction is the nonprofit’s main fundraising event.
This year’s soiree will be emceed by celebrity auctioneer Billy Harris. Grassini Family Vineyards is the 2022 Vintner Honoree.
Tickets are $3,125 for two.
All monies raised will go to SBVF’s longtime philanthropic partners, Direct Relief, the Goleta-based international humanitarian organization, and Community Health Centers, which provides medical services to Santa Barbara’s farmworker community.
In addition to the black-tie gala on Nov. 12, there are several fun ways to take part in the weekend and support the Santa Barbara Wine Auction’s mission to provide free healthcare to Santa Barbara’s farmworker community.
There will be three separate charity winemaker lunches on Friday at Lumen Wines in Los Alamos, Presqu’ile Winery in Santa Maria and SAMsARA Wine Co. in Los Olivos.
Chef Daisy Ryan, a restaurateur and philanthropist, is the featured chef for the Santa Barbara Wine Auction 2022.
Each will feature a winemaker host along with a few of their fellow winemakers throughout Santa Barbara County.
Tickets are $200, and proceeds will benefit Direct Relief and Community Health Centers of the Central Coast.
Anyone can bid on items in the silent auction, which closes at midnight Nov. 12. Included are rare wines, private pleasure cruises and decadent chef dinners. To register, visit sbwineauction.org/#auction.
The last auction, held in February 2020, proved essential to the CHC’s pandemic efforts. Money raised at the gala contributed directly to the CHC’s 39,515 free vaccinations, the opening of Los Alamos clinic in April 2022 and expansion of the CHC’s mobile clinic program.
A native of Santa Ynez Valley, Chef Ryan graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and spent several years working in some of New York City’s preeminent kitchens, including Gramercy Tavern, Chef’s Fare and Per Se.
She and her husband Greg returned to the West Coast, where she helped open The Line Hotel in Los Angeles before heading to Austin to oversee the beverage program for McGuire Moorman Hospitality.
In 2018, the couple permanently relocated to California’s Central Coast, opening Bell’s in Los Alamos and launching their company, Companion Hospitality, which now includes Bell’s, Bar Le Côte, Priedite Barbecue in Los Alamos, and a new beer and wine bar, The Other Room, opening this fall.
Since opening Bell’s, Chef Ryan was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef, and the restaurant was named to Esquire’s Best New Restaurants list. In the fall of 2021, Bell’s earned a coveted Michelin Star.
Delmar León will be the auction’s featured artist. Born and raised in Venezuela, Ms. León is a self-taught painter based in Los Olivos. She began painting when she was 9 years old in a unique community where an unlikely combination of art, mysticism and Catholicism formed the fabric of her daily life.
Each of her paintings evokes a distinct and often strong emotional response in the viewer. Her work is often described as mystical and otherworldly. Her paintings will be featured prominently at the Bacara event.
The Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Santa Barbara Vintners. The biennial Santa Barbara Wine Auction is the Foundation’s marquee charity event.
Since its inaugural gala in 2000, the auction has raised more than $5 million for humanitarian organizations, including its longtime beneficiary and partner, Direct Relief.
email: mmcmahon@newspress.com
FYI
The Santa Barbara Wine Auction 2022 will be held Friday and Nov. 12 at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara, 8301 Hollister Ave., Goleta. For more information, visit sbwineauction.org.
