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JULY NEWS J ason T inacci for the N apa V alley V intners Live auction attendees warm up their paddles June 1 during Auction Napa Valley 2013. Auction Napa Valley Rises to Top Again Annual event rakes in $16.9 million with bids for wine and other items S t. Helena, Calif.—The Napa Valley Vintners' 33rd annual Auction Napa Valley smashed all records, snaring $16.9 million in donations for health care and youth services in Napa County. The results exceeded the previous record of $10.5 million raised in 2005 by more than 60%—and more than doubled last year's $8 million earnings. This year's figure brings the 33-year total raised by the Vintners' winesandvines.com "American Wine Classic" for Napa County Learn more: Search keywords health, education and other worthy causes "Auction 2013." to more than $127 million. Part of the increase can be attributed to an improved economy, but chairs Shari and Garen Staglin, and children Shannon and Brandon, applied what they've learned in conducting their very successful Music Festival for Mental Health to sharpen the auction's focus and target big bidders. They held a series of preview dinners in top spots like Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Houston, Texas—as well as Naples, Fla., a wealthy city whose own auction briefly surpassed Napa Valley's for a few years. When the dust settled, however, some of the biggest of the 46 lots featured mostly Napa Valley wine, including a one-of-a-kind 12-liter bottle of cult favorite Screaming Eagle Cabernet, which went for $500,000. The Harlan Estate donation including four magnums of selections from the winery's library fetched $800,000; a collection of 40 wines celebrating Joseph Phelps Vineyards' 40th anniversary went for $450,000, and 100 bottles of wine honoring the Cent'anni (100th birthday) of one of the auction's founders, the late Robert Mondavi, earned $260,000. Donors also pledged from $1,000 to $600,000 to fund mental and physical health and education for youth in Napa. It totaled $3.7 million. —Paul Franson Win es & V i n es JU NE 20 13 17