California Wineries Raise Nearly $20,000 For Restaurant Workers

A wine auction in California this past week raised nearly $20,000 for restaurant workers affected by COVID-19.

The Wine Country for Restaurants #86LostWages auction raised $19,021.50 in the first week of its online auction on  Winebid.com. “When we started this auction, we thought we would have enough donations for maybe two weeks of 25 lots each, but we quickly received more than 100 donations, and more are coming in each day,” says Bryan Lipa, Wine Country for Restaurants volunteer and partner at Scale Wine Group. “We have four more weeks of auction planned thus far, with Week Two having launched on Sunday, April 12.”

Each week’s auction lots go live on Sunday evening at 7:15 p.m. PST, and then, they close the following Sunday at 7 p.m. PST, with the next week’s lots going live 15 minutes later. Quite a few famous and noteworthy names in the business have donated some amazing wines, including: Quintessa, Screaming Eagle, Flowers, Faust, Clos du Val, Alejandro Bulgheroni, Bond, Duckhorn, Harlan Lewis, Matthiasson, Ovid, Staglin, and more.

“We’ve had 140 wineries donate thus far,” says Lipa, adding that more wineries continue to donate and the most complete list of donors can be found at 86lostwages.org.

All proceeds are donated directly to the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation (RWCF),

, which is a national organization that distributes 50 percent of these funds directly to restaurant workers, 25 percent goes to zero-interest loans for restaurants to get back up and running, and the remaining 25 percent going to non-profit organizations serving restaurant workers in crisis. “This money could be the difference between an individual or a family paying their mortgage or having enough food to eat,” Lipa says. “It could fill the gap while waiting for unemployment or stimulus checks to come through. Any restaurant worker—dishwasher, server, sommelier, chef, manager, etc.—who is in need can apply for direct assistance through RWCF’s website.” The auction came together pretty quickly, Lipa says. “It took four volunteers with a sense of urgency about two weeks to get this off the ground with the amazing support of Winebid.com and RWCF teams,” he says. “Over the years, Quintessa has been fortunate to have strong support from our restaurant partners and the talented, hardworking people who keep them running,” says Laura Gabriel, senior estate manager. “Now, it’s our turn to come together as an industry to show our support for restaurant workers during this unprecedented time.” The first week of the auction spread bids across 24 lots. “On the high end, we saw two magnums from Screaming Eagle -2015 Screaming Eagle The Flight and 2013 Screaming Eagle Second Flight) donated by the winery sell for $7,000 collectively,” Lipa says. “And then on the more affordable end, there was a 2017 Pierre Yves Colin-Morey Bourgogne Chardonnay donated by Cadet Wine & Beer Bar in Napa that sold for $90.” Since organizers got the auction up and running, more and more donors are approaching them so the work of volunteers has shifted. “Our focus is now on organizing each week’s lots to include great items at a various price points so more people can participate in this effort and win some great wines while helping RWCF,” Lipa says.

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