Auction Bids Wine Lovers Good Nights

So what’s your preference--a bottle of 1982 Chateau Petrus Pomerol or a dinner for eight with Julia Child? Or perhaps a magnum of Chateau Mouton Rothschild?

All will be up for bid at the Sixth Annual Santa Barbara Wine Auction on Saturday at the Music Academy of the West. The live and silent auctions of wine and lifestyle packages will highlight a four-day series of wine-related activities tonight through Sunday.

“We feel that there’s something for everyone in the wine auction--for the new collector and the seasoned, experienced, discriminating collector,” said Robin Schutte, chairwoman of the program.

About 90 lots will be available in each auction, with wines from the Napa Valley, France, the Santa Ynez Valley and other wine-producing regions well-represented.

“Everything isn’t astronomical [in price], but it is quality,” Schutte said. “And so many of them are very sought after.”

Auctioneer Ursula Hermacinski of Christie’s auction house will preside over the live auction. Special tribute will be paid to Bart and Daphne Araujo of the Araujo Estate Eisele Vineyard of the Napa Valley and Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos) and Kate Firestone of Firestone Vineyard of the Santa Ynez Valley.

The auction will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. A dinner, presented by caterer Juliana Middleton and Doug Margerum, owner of Santa Barbara’s Wine Cask, will follow at 6 p.m. Cost to attend is $50 for the auction, $100 for the dinner. The Music Academy is at 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara.

Related activities over the four days include a wine-tasting and art tour from 4:30 to 7:30 tonight in downtown Santa Barbara. Guests may sample wine and food at restaurants and art galleries. Tickets are $12.

The weekend will conclude with the “Grand Wine and Food Tasting” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the music academy. About 30 wineries and 16 restaurants will be represented. Cost is $35.

For more information and reservations, call 969-WINE.

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Rose Burtchby, owner and chef of Ventura’s City Bakery, has a reputation for celebrating the seasons through her cuisine. Fall will be the season of honor Saturday, when Burtchby prepares an “Autumn French Feast.”

The multi-course meal will open with roasted vegetable terrine with chevre cheese on a puree of peas and basil, followed by a sorrel soup with toasted pumpkin seeds and creme fraiche.

For the salad course, Burtchby will prepare pumpkin with mint and walnut oil atop a bed of greens. For the entree, guests will have a choice of coq au vin or vegetarian eggplant Napoleon on a tomato coulis. Both will be served with white beans with herbs and Brussels sprouts with a Dijon sauce.

Seatings will be at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Cost is $25. City Bakery is located at 2358 E. Main St. For reservations, call 643-0861.

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Whether you’re host or guest, perhaps the most critical part of the Thanksgiving celebration (other than giving thanks, if we actually remember to do so) is the food.

As guest, it’s pretty simple--jello with fruit chunks, a store-bought pumpkin pie, or some wine usually will do the trick. But for the lucky person designated to feed the celebrants, it can be quite an ordeal.

For the latter group, the Let’s Get Cookin’ culinary school in Westlake Village will present a Thanksgiving cooking class. The class, to be held on Tuesday, will be led by the school’s owner, Phyllis Vaccarelli, and fellow cooking instructor JoAnn Hecht.

They will share recipes and preparation techniques for a shrimp mousse appetizer, wild rice and mushroom soup, roast turkey with chestnut stuffing, giblet gravy, triple cranberry sauce, souffleed yam puffs and sauteed green beans with hazelnuts.

For dessert, the duo will prepare praline pumpkin cheesecake and homemade apple pie.

The class will begin at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $55. Let’s Get Cookin’ is at 4643 Lakeview Canyon Road. For reservations, call (818) 991-3940.