Raffling Off Wine Spectator’s Top 100

MidAtlantic Wine + Food Festival benefits from Wine Guild’s ambitious idea.

Last winter, members of the Wilmington Wine Guild scoured the globe in search of two bottles of every wine on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list for 2013. They could be yours for $100 and a little luck. The second batch will be raffled off Aug. 14, with proceeds to benefit MidAtlantic Wine + Food Festival and other charities. Your odds: 1 in 250, if all the raffle tickets get sold. The idea was hatched among friends on New Year’s Eve, who sent members of the guild on the hunt a couple weeks later. About 80 of the wines were available in the United States, says Bill Stimson of the Wilmington Wine Guild. The remaining 20—including the exclusive Olivier Ravoire Gigondas 2011, sold only at the winery in France, and a $10 bottle available only in Italy—were located by friends abroad. With the values and retail prices of some bottles soaring after they’ve been named to the Top 100, “It’s kind of a moving target,” Stimson says. The collective suggested retail price of just over $5,000 translates to a fair market value of about $5,500—and the undying envy of your friends. That’s not a bad return on your investment. For tickets, email Stimson at billinde@aol.com. “Now we’ll have to find something else that’s never been done before.”

 

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