On Friday March 6th the Classic Wines Auction held its Annual Ambassadors Dinner at the Portland Art Museum.
While the Classic Wines Auction itself has been going on for 32 years, the first Ambassadors Dinner began in 1993. This dinner is a thank you celebration for all of the community sponsors, and is held the night before the Classic Wines Auction.
The Ambassadors dinner, while exclusively for the Classic Wines Auction sponsors, is also an introduction and celebration of the chosen wine ambassadors. A selection of featured wines from each ambassador is poured at both events.
After an introduction by Stephanie Strickland of KGW news, each ambassador spoke of stories from their own establishments.
This year’s Wine Ambassadors were:
Sassicaia from Tuscany, Italy
Silver Oak Cellars from Napa, California
Archery Summit Winery, From Dayton Oregon
Doubleback Winery from Wall Walla, Washington
In addition to the fabulous wine for tasting and auctioning, each ambassador also created a one-of-a-kind experience for the live auction.
After an amazing meal by Chef Allen Routt of The Painted Lady in Newberg Oregon, Greg Goodwin, the CEO of Kuni Automotive, spoke.
Kuni Automotive has been the presenting sponsor since 2013. Prior to 2013 Kuni was a lead sponsor for several years. Greg spoke about how importance of auction Kuni Automotive; the mission to raise funds for children and families in our community is in line with the company’s goals to give back. In addition to being the presenting sponsor, Kuni also donated two cars to the auction, the highly sought after and rare BMW i8.
For the Ambassadors dinner attendees Kuni Automotive gave S’well bottles for each guest.
Each bottle was imprinted with the Kuni Automotive logo and packaged with a fun custom label showing users how the bottle can be used for transporting wine at the perfect temperature in their BMW i8. The bottles were a hit!
The Ambassadors dinner was a wonderful night leaving guests happy and excited for the following day’s auction!
