How it all began…

One dark and stormy night, after a night out with friends, Gary Bean got to thinking that the only thing that our perfect town didn’t have was a fun, festive and exciting wine tasting event. Known to be a man of action, Gary spoke to Mike and Weesa Hild, owners of Cork’s Fine Wines and Spirits about the viability of such an event. No sooner said than done, in June of 2003 Weesa and Gary began to discuss how to start a wine tasting event and auction.  They both wanted to use the event to help raise wine awareness and benefit local charities. 

Gary and Weesa had no clue about how to go about organizing the event, and as they say, “Ignorance is bliss” and they forged onward to put together a committee of dedicated wine consumers. First, Shelley Sale of Southern Wine and Spirits, well known sommelier and wine expert, and Eric Fellows of Wells Fargo Bank, and pretty darn competent with his wines as well, were 2 of the core board members.

Our first break came when Jack Ludwig, then owner of Silver Jack’s Steak House, generously donated his bar area for the event.  

Since the Boy’s and Girl’s Club was our chosen charity we enlisted their board and members to help with donations and soliciting of sponsors.  We gave away tickets the first year to entice people to participate.  Year one turned out to be a great success with over $30,000 raised.

Over the next 2 years we added new board members and expanded the event to include 2 days of wine tasting with auctions.  It is really satisfying to see an idea become reality.  Showing what can be accomplished with a dedicated and hard working group of people.  Our board has been know to have a little fun while staying focused on the task at hand to raise money for local charities.

What started as a few and have grown to many caring individuals necessary to support this exciting event.  We’ve raised over $100,000 since we began in 2004.  This is due to the dedication of a community that clearly steps up to the plate to help support our local charities.  

Originally this group of people thought they would file for nonprofit status and become something of a “foundation”. When we found out what that entailed, reality set in. We decided that the beauty and uniqueness of this group of people is we come together for two reasons and two reasons only-to taste extraordinary wine at a spirited, friendly and warm event and in the process raise money to give away to worthy programs in our community.

Simply put, we believe in this community and so do our sponsors… we’re here to do the right thing.

…and that’s how it all began.