We are honored to continue our partnerships with American Cancer Society, Gilda’s Club, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Middle TN, The Minnie Pearl Cancer Foundation, St. Thomas Cancer Network, and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. To read about all of our Beneficiaries, please click here.

We would love to hear how our Beneficiaries have helped you or a loved one! Please love your comments below.

We are looking forward to raising even more money this year for our Beneficiaries, and hope you will join us to fund the fight against cancer on July 21, 2012!

Back in 1855, Emperor Napoleon III asked for a classification system for the best Bordeaux to be presented to visitors from around the world at the Paris Exposition. The chateaux were categorized by their reputations and the prices they were garnering in the marketplace. With only one exception, the reds that made the list came from the Medoc region. The top five classes, based on the reputations and price of wines from each chateau, were given the distinction “Grand Cru Classé en 1855.” Lynch-Bages labels carry that distinction to this day.

World-class reds have a long history in the Pauillac Appellation, located in the heart of the Medoc, in northwest Bordeaux. Hugh Johnson notes in his World Atlas of Wine: “If one had to single out one Bordeaux commune to head the list, there would be no argument. It would be Pauillac. […] Many claret-lovers would tell you that the wines of Pauillac have the quintessential flavor they look for in Bordeaux – a combination of fresh soft fruit, oak, dryness, subtlety combined with substance, a touch of cigar-box, a suggestion of sweetness and, above all, vigor. Even the lesser growths approach their ideal claret.”

The Lynch-Bages commitment to quality is definitely a family affair. In, 1934, the estate came under the ownership of the Cazes family, which carefully brought innovation and modernization. Lynch-Bages became the last vineyard to harvest in the appellation, assuring a truly ripe harvest. The results were remarkable. The wines are characterized by their deep color and elegance, and their impressive homogeneity and accuracy. Generations later, the same can still be said. Jean-Charles Cazes, a fourth generation winemaker who has run the family vineyards in France and abroad since 2006, will be joining us at the Wine Auction on July 21, 2012 and at the Lynch-Bages patrons dinner on July 20, 2012.

A summer tour of Lynch-Bages Château will delight the visitor with not only exceptional wines and a dreamy, bucolic setting, but also an exhibit by an exceptional contemporary artist in the estate’s former vat room. An annual advertising campaign that highlights a particular preference by a fine artist for Lynch-Bages wines has left the Château with an impressive collection of commissioned art.

In fact, Cakebread Cellars invites devotees to submit photos of themselves having fun with their Cakebread wines for an annual contest. Skinny dipping at the beach with a bottle of Cakebread took the prize one year; surfing and fishing have also been winners. The 2011 top prize went to a military helicopter pilot who is shown standing in front of his chopper, hanging onto a bottle of Cakebread Chardonnay after his final flight.

Cakebread Cellars was an early entrant in Napa Valley wine production. Dennis’ father, Jack Cakebread, was an accomplished photographer who trained under Ansel Adams. He originally came up to Napa some 30 years ago to capture the beauty of the landscape for a wine book. His family owned peach and almond orchards, but on this trip he found his calling in grapes. With the $1,500 advance from the photography assignment, he put a down payment on a friend’s ranch and became a grape farmer. Today the family business is one of Napa’s most beloved. Jack still reigns as CEO, son Bruce is COO and President, and son Dennis is Senior VP of Sales and Marketing.

Since the first vintage, a 1973 Chardonnay, the family winery has become renowned for its Chardonnays. Yet the winery has great breadth: one of the top selling wines of 2011 was Cakebread’s 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. The family also produces the Dancing Bear Ranch and Vine Hill Ranch labels, appreciated for their Cabernet Sauvignon as well. Today Cakebread wines include pinot noir, syrah, merlot, sauvignon blanc, zinfandel, a rosé they call Vin de Porche, and a light red wine blend they named Rubaiyat after the famous poem “Rubáiyát” by Omar Khayyám. Cakebread wines are exported to 21 countries.

The high quality of Cakebread wines can be attributed to the winery’s finely honed mix of old world and modern technology. Cakebread’s viticulturist measures ground moisture using a subterranean neutron probe, and then ages the wine in French oak casks. A secret of the remarkable Chardonnay is whole cluster pressing, not used by many wineries. The juice is carefully extracted without crushing the grape, and only the juice is fermented.

Another unique aspect of Cakebread is its emphasis on food, and food and wine pairings. In fact it’s one of the only vineyards in Napa offering a “wine & food pairing experience” as one of its public tours. That’s thanks to Delores Cakebread, the matriarch of the family, who serves as VP of Ambience and Culinary, and oversees her organic kitchen garden. For 25 years, the winery has hosted American Harvest Workshops in September, bringing together five up-and-coming chefs, local farmers and Cakebread winemakers. For a peek at the fun, mouth-watering recipes from the chefs – many of whom have become quite famous – and guidelines for wine pairings, take a look at Cakebread Cellars American Harvest Cookbook, by Jack and Delores Cakebread and Jack Streeter, Culinary Director.

A native of Southern California, Waggoner began his career under the tutelage of Michael Roberts at Trumps in West Hollywood in the early 1980′s. Later he honed his craft in the French kitchens of culinary luminaries Jacques Lameloise, Charles Barrier, Pierre Gagnaire, Gerard Boyer and Mark Meneau. In 1988, at age 26, Waggoner became the first American chef to own his own restaurant in France, the much-lauded Le Monte Cristo in Moneteau, in the Burgundy region.

Fortunately for Nashville, Waggoner returned stateside in the 1990′s and presided over the kitchen at The Wild Boar,  earning the restaurant Wine Spectator’s Grand Award as well as the coveted AAA Five-Diamond Award. Following that, he spent 12 years at the elegant Charleston Grill at Charleston Place in South Carolina. Renowned for bringing French culinary technique to low-country cuisine, Waggoner issued a cookbook, Charleston Grill at Charleston Place, to share the secrets of  his new Southern haute cuisine.

Waggoner’s celebrity has extended to cable televison. He has cooked to perfection on “Gourmet Getaways with Robin Leach,” “Great Chefs of the South,” “Ralph Emery Show,” “Dave Eckert’s Culinary Travels,” “Flavors of America,” the Food Network’s “In Food Today,” “Ready, Set, Cook,” and “The Best of.” He took home an Emmy for his own show “Off the Menu” with Turner South, and is currently hosting “U Cook! with Chef Bob Waggoner,” which airs on more than 100 PBS affiliates. Next up will be “Utravel! with Chef Bob,” coming in the spring of 2012.

We are delighted to announce that Chef Bob Waggoner will be gracing our kitchen at the 2012 l’Eté du Vin patron’s party with select wines from Château Lynch-Bages on July 20. It will be an evening not to be missed!

The area of “Batges” is mentioned as early back as the sixteenth century in the terriers (estate records) of Lafite. The vineyard was established and then expanded by the Déjean family, one with a lineage of Pauillac dignitaries, solicitors, judges and merchants. Its great wine history began in the eighteenth century when, in 1728, it became the property of Chevalier Pierre Drouillard, Treasurer General of Guyenne, who purchased it from Bernard Déjean. Upon his death in 1749, Pierre Drouillard bequeathed the estate to his daughter, Elizabeth, who was then the wife of Thomas Lynch. The property thus passed into the Lynch family for seventy-five years.

Then known as the “Cru de Lynch”, the property was sold in 1824 to Sébastien Jurine, a wine merchant from Geneva who had newly moved to Bordeaux. Under the stewardship of his young son, André-Louis, it was classified among the Cinquièmes Crus in the prestigious 1855 Classification. In 1862, “Jurine Bages” was sold to the wine merchants and brothers Cayrou who restored the estate’s name, which has remained unchanged ever since as “Lynch-Bages”. Clearly a very wise decision…

Two generations later, the château was still in the hands of a member of the Cayrou family, General Félix de Vial. In the 1930s, he leased the vineyard to Jean-Charles Cazes, who was already in charge of Château Ormes de Pez in Saint-Estèphe. Cazes would go on to purchase both properties on the eve of the Second World War. Lynch-Bages has been run by the Cazes family ever since.

Jean-Michel Cazes was the featured Guest of Honor at l’Eté du Vin’s 1992 Auction. Today, we welcome his son Jean-Charles.

Their first vintage–157 cases of 1973 Chardonnay–was sold to Phil Faight of Groezinger’s Wine Shop in Yountville. He in turn sold to a small audience of premium wine drinkers who primarily drove up from the Bay Area on weekends to visit the country. “Two or three cars an hour would be on the road and we would all stop and look to see who was coming,” said Jack as he thought of his original neighbors who became some of the “legends of the wine industry – Mondavi, Martini, Heitz, BV’s Tchelistcheff and Christian Brothers “Brother Tim.” Today, traffic is about 30 cars-a-minute as the world comes to visit the Napa Valley wine country.

“When we started out, we made a barrel and we sold a barrel. We made two barrels and sold two barrels,” Jack stated. “We are very grateful for our ability to sell the wines we make to such supportive customers.”

One thing that hasn’t changed in over thirty years is the family-members’ participation in all activities when it comes to growing, making or promoting their wine. “We didn’t know we were going to build a winery,” said Jack. “There was no strategic business plan like you have today. We just believed in our heart-of-hearts that it would work to bring our family here.” Today, a team of four Cakebreads leads Cakebread Cellars into the new millennium with a positive and enthusiastic outlook.

In spite of their ability to transform with the times in all aspects of the winery business and their continued success, they are still asked daily where the name of the winery comes from. The family forebears were bakers in England, primarily of a dense round loaf called a cakebrede.

Saturday, July 21, 2012
Loews Vanderbilt Hotel
5:30 pm

l’Eté du Vin is proud to announce our Guests of Honor, Jean-Charles Cazes of Chateau Lynch Bages and Dennis Cakebread of Cakebread Cellars.

Plan to join us on Friday night, July 20th, for special dinners with these winemakers and auction previews.

Nancy and Billy Ray Hearn hosted a dinner at Nancy’s lovely home at 3 Whitehall with Kix and Barbara Brooks. Attending the dinner were: Joe and Phran Galante, Gerry and Allison House, Kix and Barbara Brooks, John and Martina McBride, Mike and Jane Dungan and Billy Ray and Nancy Hearn. Food was created by Capers Catering (Johnny Haffner), the table settings and chairs were provided by The Premier Event (Cynthia Himmelfarb), and coordination of the dinner was provided by Diane Edwards. Wines were provided from the cellar of Billy Ray Hearn. Whitehall has museum quality fine art and is decorated in the French style. Eight guests were wowed by the culinary creations of Capers’ Catering Chef, Johnny Haffner, paired with wines from the Hearn’s cellars.

Donated by: Capers’ Catering, Billy Ray and Nancy Hearn, Kix and Barbara Brooks