The Crowd: If you pour it, and it’s good, they will come
Pour a good glass of vintage grape, and the people will come. In fact, some 300 guests converged March 11 at Newport Beach’s Island Hotel for the 10th Pacific Coast Wine Festival.
The party featured the top 12 wines from Wine Spectator’s top 100 list among a major rundown of vintages later offered for auction, with proceeds benefiting the Pacific Symphony orchestra. By evening’s end, more than $240,000 had been secured for symphony artistic and educational outreach in O.C..
Chair Greg Bates joined his symphony board chair wife, Joann Leatherby. The crowd enjoyed pourings from Beekeeper Cellars, Blackbird Vineyards, Bougatz Cellars, Chateau Haut-Batailley, Chateau Vieille Cure, Chateau Maillet, David Arthur Vineyards and a multitude of others.
Following a massive frenzy of bidding on some 300 lots up for auction, guests were invited into the Island ballroom, decorated to resemble a fabulous grape orchard. A multi-course dinner, paired, of course, with exceptional wines, delighted guests, including Maria and John Young, Lauren and Richard Packard, Pat and Rick McAuley, and Laura and Ed Cunningham. Also in the crowd: Thai and Stephen Brown, Sue and Fred Seibert, Betty and Ken Potalivo, Sally Anderson and Tom Rogers and Susan Anderson and Sam Anderson.
Performers from Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra entertained, as patrons toasted. Featured artists included cellists Samantha Lee and Jonathon Kim.
Led by music director Carl St.Clair, PSO is the largest orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last half century.
Here’s to the little ladies who lunch
It is always a scene that might be suitable for a movie that tells the story of how the other half live. Perhaps something out of 1950s cinema starring the likes of Grace Kelly. But this is Newport Beach, with a style and beat all its own, and the 2017 National Charity League Juniors Mother-Daughter Luncheon descended upon the Balboa Bay Resort Hotel in grand style for an annual spring gathering.
Some 400 guests, dressed to kill, came together for the March 18 afternoon of fashion by Bloomingdale’s and philanthropy. Raising upward of $80,000, the event assists NCL Juniors charities, including High Hopes Head Injury, Pediatric Cancer Research and Harry & Grace Steele Children’s Center at Orange Coast College.
Party designers chose the theme “Derby,” transforming the Balboa Bay Resort ballroom into an “equestrian” event. NCL Juniors President CC Knowles borrowed on the theme in her welcoming address.
“Take life’s hurdles in your stride,” she said. “Hold on to your values. If you get bucked off, hold on tighter. Carry the people around you when they are in need. And, always spur yourself on to greatness.”
The good old fashion horse sense was met with applause.
The annual luncheon-fashion event is a rite of passage for mothers and their young daughters involved in NCL Juniors. It is the culmination or graduation for sixth-grade NCL Juniors, moving onto the high school program, which begins in the seventh-grade and takes the young girls through high school graduation. The core purpose is to create strong mother-daughter bonds and a generational commitment to charity and community service. In a crazy modern world, the social aspect of the program hails to age-old tradition of noblesse oblige.
Congratulations to the sixth-grade National Charity League Juniors mothers and their daughters: Justine and Sienna Cuneo, Michelle and Allie Duarte, C.C. and Olivia Knowles, Monique and Lucy Tipton, Allison and Sophia Rabin, Pooneh and Tara Shakoori, Ali and Lauren Jones, Brooke and Bryce Willems, Cory and Alexis Lang, and Christy and Maggie Marr. Chaired by Kimberly Massoudi, Yalda Miller and Christy Flanagan, the luncheon also welcomed Sally Bartz, Jackie Dollander, Amy Ivey, Christy Marr, Allison Rabin and Monique Tipton, among other dedicated NCL women.
To learn more, go to nationalcharityleague.com.
A grand start to a 50th anniversary year
The Segerstrom Center for the Arts has earned a world-class reception for presentation of ballet. This month, SCFTA offered the world premiere of “Whipped Cream” from American Ballet Theatre. Critics raved and audiences were enchanted. Not only was the ballet inspired, but the staging, costumes, sets and effects took the production to another level.
Following opening night on March 15, major sponsor South Coast Plaza hosted the most lavish cast party in Jewell Court as part of its year-long 50th anniversary celebration. Cast, crew, center staff, donors, patrons and guests were invited to leave the center and travel to South Coast Plaza for a late-evening supper. They arrived at a magical setting created by floral and party designer White Lilac. No expense was spared.
As the Cinderella hour crowd converged, wait staff provided Nicolas Feuillatte Rose champagne. A signature cocktail created with Ketel One Vodka, lemon juice and lavender simple syrup was billed as the Tea Flower. Designers capitalized on soft shades of lavender, pink, rose and crème in all aspects of the affair, from décor to food, flowers, even the cocktails.
Sharing cocktails and conversation in the intimate, velvet-upholstered sitting arrangements created in the Jewell Court space, guests sampled the most extravagant selection of tray-passed appetizers: Buckwheat Blinis with caviar, deviled quail eggs, golden chanterelle sautéed mushrooms and fabulous jumbo shrimp cocktails, all served in unique and artistic fashion.
Buffet stations positioned around the court served international delicacies for midnight supper, including Austrian chicken schnitzel, Swedish meatballs, Norwegian veal with lingonberry jam garnish and Italian cones filled with shaved prosciutto, genoa salami, Basque cheese and ciabatta crostini. Absolutely over the top.
VIP guests in attendance were Elizabeth Segerstrom, managing partner, South Coast Plaza; Debra Gunn Downing, executive director of marketing, SCP; Ruth Ann Segerstrom, SCFTA President Terry Dwyer, SCFTA Executive Vice President Judy Morr, American Ballet Theatre Director Kevin McKenzio, ABT choreographer Alex Ratmansky and production designer Mark Ryder. Celebs on hand included actor Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad,” singer “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Pee-Wee Herman” actor Paul Reubens and singer Mark Mothersbaugh.
A dessert presentation too elaborate to describe capped off a special night marking the 50th birthday of the opening of South Coast Plaza in March 1967. As guests sampled pink-iced Rice Krispie cookies and lavender latte macaroons, tributes were made to the late Henry Segerstrom, whose artistic vision and business acumen built one of the nation’s most successful retail empires, along with the extended creation of a cultural phenomenon known as Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.
