By the Glass or Buy the Bottle

Longtime wine-shop owner Glenn Sanders began organizing benefit wine auctions in Ventura County about 13 years ago--first for the American Diabetes Assn., then, for the last decade, for the Boys & Girls Club of Camarillo during the annual A Taste of Camarillo.

Though the area’s wine aficionados don’t have many opportunities to bid on wines locally, Sanders said they have always seemed to feel comfortable with the auction process, and the turnout is generally strong.

“I don’t think they’re all collectors, but they are avid wine drinkers,” said Sanders, owner of Best Buy Wine and Spirits in Camarillo and Allan’s Wine & Spirits in Port Hueneme. “At any one time, we have 50 to 75 people in the auction tent bidding. Last year we did quite well. We took in about $14,000 from the live auction.”

Sanders, chairman of A Taste of Camarillo, will again auction some select vintages at this year’s Boys & Girls Club benefit, from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Adolfo Camarillo House. The auction is part of a food and wine festival that will include samplings from a variety of restaurants and wineries.

Le Rendez-Vous Restaurant, Petrucci’s Bistro and Petrucci’s Ristorante, Rosarito Beach Cafe, Pompeii Trattoria, Verona Trattoria, the Pastabilities restaurants, the Chart House and the Whale’s Tail are among the restaurants expected to participate. Wineries on the list include Firestone Vineyard, Kenwood Vineyards, Zaca Mesa Winery, the Brander Vineyard and B.R. Cohn Winery.

A silent wine auction will run from 1 to 2 p.m., with the live auction following at 2. There will be about 35 lots up for bid in the silent auction and 75 available in the live auction.

“We’ve got Silver Oak [Wine Cellars’] Napa Valley Cabernet, Silver Oak’s Bonny’s Vineyard. We’ve got several lots of Diamond Creek [Vineyards],” Sanders said. “We’ve got some older French wines, some highly rated wines.”

Most of the wines to be auctioned off are from the Napa-Sonoma region, with about 20% from the Santa Barbara County area. Sanders said he picked them up from friends, collectors and the wineries themselves.

Auction participants will have an opportunity to bid on lots of various quantity--some with one bottle of wine, others with sequential bottles, such as the 1986, 1987 and 1988 vintages from a particular winery. Sanders said the upper-end asking price is about $350.

Sanders offered some tips for auction novices.

“I think the first thing most people look at would be the winery.” he said. “Who is it? Silver Oak is noted for their Cabernets; that’s all they produce.”

Sanders also suggested consulting, in advance, a wine rating publication such as those published by Robert M. Parker Jr. or Wine Spectator magazine.

The Adolfo Camarillo House is at 3771 Mission Oaks Blvd. Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door. (805) 482-8113.

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For those who didn’t get enough Greek food at the Greek festival in Thousand Oaks in June, there will be another stomach-extending opportunity to the north.

The 24th annual Santa Barbara Greek Festival will be held Saturday and Sunday at Oak Park. The festival will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days, which should provide plenty of time for standing in line, eating, digesting, standing in line, eating and digesting.

Among the food items available will be the traditional dolmas (grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs, with and without meat), souvlaki (skewered marinated meat), kotopeta (chicken and vegetable pies made with layered phyllo dough) and loukanio (spicy sausage filled with meat, herbs and garlic).

On the dessert side there will be some kourabiedes (butter cookies topped with powdered sugar), yaourtopita (yogurt and lemon sponge cake soaked in syrup and topped with nuts), diples (deep-fried pastries covered in syrup, cinnamon and nuts) and, of course, baklava (layered phyllo dough with nuts, spices and honey).

Admission to the festival is free. Oak Park is at Alamar and Junipero streets. (805) 683-4492.