The inaugural Wine Yarra Valley Grand Auction goes live online next Thursday, 8 December with opportunities to wine, dine and explore with some of the region’s best winemakers and wine minds in the offering. There is also the option to buy extremely limited museum and large format wines, many of which are not commercially available.

Hosted by Wine Yarra Valley, the Grand Auction will also donate funds to not-for-profit organisation HICCI, which provides essential support to vulnerable residents of the Yarra Valley including emergency relief, transport assistance and social support, and a weekly community meal ‘Dinner @ Darron’s’.

The Wine Yarra Valley Grand Auction was created by members of the local wine industry to celebrate the achievements of Australia’s premier cool climate region, by giving collectors and passionate wine lovers the chance to access exclusive items, while also contributing to the vital work of HICCI.

Winemaker Jayden Ong said, “The Wine Yarra Valley Grand Auction is an exciting initiative for our region, sparked by members of the board who want to bring the wine community together over the festive season and celebrate what we do best.

“We want to reward people who love the wines and the region, by curating some very unique experiences which really can’t be replicated, and some never-before-seen wine collections we’re really thrilled to present."

Ong said numerous producers from across the Yarra Valley have worked together to assemble a number of attractive collections such as Lot 2 - Magnificent Magnums which includes rare large format bottles of 1996 Wantirna Estate Amelia, 2013 Yeringberg Shiraz, 2016 Seville Estate Shiraz, 2018 Yarra Yering Dry Red Wine No. 2 and a 2020 Mount Mary Quintet, as well as fantastic experiences like Lot 5 - An Epic Yarra Valley Weekend.

Yarra Yering’s Chief Winemaker Sarah Crowe said the enthusiastic generosity of the Yarra Valley wine community to donate auction items for the Grand Auction has been impressive.

“We’ve been able to capture and celebrate our history, the beauty of our region, the incredible wines we make here and our legacy as one of Australia’s top wine destinations. I think we all feel very grateful for the support we’ve received from our loyal customers over the past two years of the pandemic; they’ve really kept our businesses humming along.

“We hope they get involved in this auction to feel like they too can be a part of our history, our community and our regional wine culture," she said.

Yarra Yering and Jayden Ong Wines will be some of the key attractions of the Epic Yarra Valley Weekend experience, valued at more than $7,500 with bids starting from $3,500. This epic weekend is inclusive of one night’s vineyard accommodation at the Yarra Yering Homestead, a portfolio tasting at Yarra Yering, a lavish lunch at Jayden Ong Wines, Four Pillars’ Distillers Bench Experience which includes a private audience with Distiller and Founder Cam McKenzie, Sparkling Brunch at Chandon, Antipasto Hamper from Kitchen & Butcher plus all transfers for eight guests.

Additional experiences include Lot 7 - Meet Meg, A Master of Wine Experience, as well as Lot 1 - Yarra Valley Legendary Lunch for eight people at Dominique Portet which will include an opportunity to dine with Crowe, Sandra DePury from Yeringberg, Dylan McMahon from Seville Estate, Sam Middleton of Mount Mary and Ben Portet from Dominique Portet.

There are 13 rare and limited auction lots with varying starting bids, ranging from $300 to $3,500, and a number of other wine collections wine lovers can discover at app.galabid.com/wyvgrandauction22

The inaugural Wine Yarra Valley Grand Auction will open on 8 December and run as a silent auction with GalaBid until 18 December 2022 with confirmations for each successful bid awarded before Christmas Day.

Participants can find out more information and register to monitor and submit bids up until midnight of 18 December, with the mobile GalaBid App or online at app.galabid.com/wyvgrandauction22/register

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