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closeA weekly update on the plans and promises made by local businesses:
Name: Archie McLaren
Job: Founder and chairman
Event: Central Coast Wine Classic
What he said then: The 2007 Central Coast Wine Classic broke its auction proceeds record, with more than $1 million raised.
“Auction results for 2006 were $715,000, so an increase of over $300,000 is incredibly gratifying,” Archie McLaren, founder and event chairman, told The Tribune in July 2007. “What is truly astonishing is that over 90 percent of the funds were contributed by people who come from outside the Central Coast area.”
Highest bids among the 600 attendees in 2007 were for wine excursions to South America and France, and a new Cadillac Escalade.
What he says now: The 24th annual Wine Classic auction raised more than $802,050 — $200,000 short of last year’s proceeds.
McLaren expects 2009 receipts to be even lower.
“We’re grateful for whatever it is we see,” he said this week. “We do rather well considering where we are and particularly considering the current economy.”
He attributes the 2008 shortfall to problems with a few big-ticket items.
The Wine Classic is one of the Central Coast’s most prestigious and longest-running wine events. It enjoys a high profile in national publications such as Wine Spectator.
Attendance this year was strong, which McLaren attributes to the dedication of annual visitors.
The auction and about 80 percent of the other events that make up the four-day Avila Beach event — tastings, symposia and dinners — were sold out. Attendees are from 200 California communities and 30 other states.
It will donate $240,350 this year to about a dozen charities in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
McLaren was disappointed to lose General Motors as a sponsor due to the company’s “financial situation,” he said.
Cars can fetch around $50,000.
A trip to South African wine country was expected to bring about $50,000. With only two months until departure, it didn’t sell. Cruise lines that had donated other years were full this season.
“They’re not now,” McLaren said, optimistic about donation prospects for 2009, the event’s 25th anniversary. “We may end up with some things we haven’t had in the past.”
The board will be looking for a new automobile manufacturers to donate.
McLaren also expects cuts to promotional spending in 2009.
Set for July 9-12, 2009, the silver anniversary will highlight the event’s early days.
“We’re revisiting some of the wine families who’ve been supporting us since day one,” McLaren said, including Napa’s Mondavis.
Tim Mondavi will offer a vertical, or year-by-year, tasting of Mondavi cabernet sauvignon reserve wines. He’ll also serve the family’s current brand, Continuum, formed after Robert Mondavi Corp. was sold to Constellation Brand. Another symposium will focus on zinfandel, the grape that put Paso Robles on state vineyard maps a few decades ago.
Said McLaren: “You can expect to see some of our Paso Robles families participating in that.”
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