UPDATE: 17th Annual Livermore Valley Wine Auction

UPDATE: The numbers are in! The 300 people who attended the 17th Annual Livermore Valley Wine Auction Saturday helped raise more than $225,000 for children in need.

Guests at the event at Wente's Estate Winery, which donated their space for the cause, were treated to pours from many of the Livermore Valley's more than 50 wineries during a silent auction that featured, of course, plenty of wines, including a couple of vintage bottles, circa 1953 and 1945, from Chateau Calon Segur, in France's bordeaux region.

Then the action went live, with magic-voiced auctioneer Damon Casatico of Charity Benefit Auctions revving up the crowd to bid thousands of dollars on big ticket prizes, including a cruise for two to Croatia and wine country trips. The event was for Open Heart Kitchen, the Walnut Creek-based Children’s Skin Disease Foundation and ValleyCare Foundation’s Mobile Health Unit.

While the mood was festive, with some attendees decked out in black tie attire and dining on mesquite grilled filet mignon, the seriousness of the causes was not lost on the crowd, which was especially moved by Open Heart's plea for funds to help expand its program to help a Pleasanton school whose students are not getting enough to eat.

"The funds we receive will support Open Heart Kitchen’s Weekend Box Lunch Program that provides needy kids with nutritious lunches when they are not at school,” said Executive Director Linda McKeever. “Open Heart Kitchen is the only soup kitchen in the Tri-Valley area, and we provide an important safety net against hunger for local families.”

The portion of the auction that funded Open Heart raised $61,000, according to auction organizers, up significantly from the $38,000 raised last year.

The Children's Skin Disease Foundation runs a summer camp at Camp Arroyo in Livermore that gives kids with skin diseases a chance to enjoy outdoor fun. It's the only such camp in the Western U.S. that does this.

The event was hosted by the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Foundation and sponsored by . Other major donors included in Pleasanton and Sybase.

For more information, visit www.LVwine.org or call 925-447-WINE (9463).

Here are the top earning prizes:

1.       Four Seasons Maui Resort and Round Trip First-Class Alaska Airlines raised $7,600;
2.       Murrieta’s Well – Dinner and Ballroom Dancing for 10 raised $6,000 x3 with the Wente family donating this lot to three separate bidders;
3.       Five lots raised $5,000 each:
a.       Azamara Club Cruise to Croatia;
b.      Concannon Vineyard– Celebrating 50 years of Petite Sirah;
c.       LV Wine Country Progressive Dinner with Bodegas, Les Chenes, Nottingham and Occasio with transportation by Black Tie;
d.      Darcie Kent Painting; and
e.      Customize your Napa Experience with the Vineyard Inn, Miner Vineyards and Gargiulo Vineyards.