Wine For a Cause is proud to report on it's last event, a wine dinner and silent auction hosted by Walter and Ronda Stucker and Matthew and Elizabeth Head. The purpose of the event was, besides having some great food and drinking some great wine with friends, to raise funds and spread the word about the wonderful, life saving pediatric cancer research being done at Cook Children's Medical Center.
We are proud to announce that the Schweiger wine dinner and silent auction raised over $30,000 for the new MIBG room!
Cook Children's Medical Center is doing amazing work in the area of life saving pediatric cancer research. Our mission for this year is to raise funds for the new MIBG treatment room that Cooks Children's is currently building. MIBG is a chemical that mimics certain natural compounds in the body that are concentrated in selective tissues including neuroblastoma cells. 131I is an isotope of iodine that emits powerful radioactive energy, sufficient to kill tumor cells. 131I can be chemically attached to MIBG to form a compound that holds promise for cell-specific treatment of neuroblastoma, only it requires a special lead lined room for the patient. Currently there are only 4 such rooms in the country. Cooks Children's is building the 5th room, the only one in the southwest. It is also the first room of it's kind in the world to be specifically designed for MIBG treatment.
This room, when completed, will be filled 52 weeks a year with children hoping for a new life beyond fear and pain, beyond neuroblastoma. For more information about this very exciting pediatric cancer treatment, please see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095980490800035X
Our vintner this year is Schweiger Vineyards. Back in 1960, the Napa Valley was a farming community where hard work was rewarded with the satisfaction of a job well done. The valley floor was dominated by sheep, and the hillsides were wild, untamed forests.
As part of a surveying class while in college, Fred Schweiger selected to survey his parent's property at the top of Spring Mountain Road. While working on that project Fred realized that the rich, deep volcanic soils and the unique microclimates would be particularly favorable for Cabernet Sauvignon and other classic wine producing varietals. He also discovered an eight-acre fairly level land-locked parcel adjoining his parent's property. Within two years Fred, as a college student, was the owner of that parcel.
Clearing for vineyard purposes did not begin until the late 1970's. During the clearing process, old redwood grape stakes spaced at 1x1 meter intervals were discovered, reconfirming the notion that the property had once been a prime viticulture area dating back to the late 1870's. The first Schweiger vines were planted in 1981, pioneering sustainable farming.
For the first 10 years, the Schweigers sold their renowned fruit to Joe Cafaro, ZD, Newton and Stags Leap Winery. In 1994, Schweiger Vineyards became a bonded winery and the family began bottling wine under their own label, under the direction of son, Andrew Schweiger, a UC Davis grad who learned the trade at several of the industry’s top wineries. The family continued selling the majority of their grapes until 1999 when they began using 100 percent of their estate fruit for Schweiger Vineyards wine. Today, the family works together to farm 35 acres of vineyards producing about 5000 cases each year. The primary varietals continue to be Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, but they also farm micro-blocks of Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, and Petite Sirah.
