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SipsAlongT heWay<br />
Wine and the Arts<br />
a natural relationship<br />
Fernbank Museum<br />
Jim Sanders is widely considered the father of fine wines in Georgia. For years,<br />
his wine store in the Buckhead section of Atlanta was a gathering spot for an<br />
assemblage of wine enthusiasts that included prominent physicians, Georgia<br />
Supreme Court justices, journalists, actors and playwrights. After consuming generous<br />
pours and enjoying his French-inspired, southern-influenced cuisine, happy<br />
guests purchased wines that bore the owner’s label, J.Sanders, about 170<br />
different ones mostly from Burgundy.<br />
Many regulars at his store were stalwarts with the High Museum of Atlanta Wine<br />
Auction, an annual multi-day celebration of wines of the world and the culinary<br />
creations of celebrity chefs, the primary fund-raiser for the acclaimed museum.<br />
JIT WAS THE HIGH THAT BROUGHT PICASSO TO<br />
the South with a stunning blockbuster just before the Atlanta<br />
Summer Olympics. As a result of the Museum’s auction<br />
gala, I met many notables in the world of wine, and one still<br />
stands out: Alexandra de Nanancourt of fabled Laurent-Perrier.<br />
We met for breakfast and confirmed an old tradition of<br />
enjoying flutes of Champagne with ham and eggs. The bubbly<br />
that morning was from her family’s Champagne house,<br />
and the stories she shared confirmed the romantic chemistry<br />
of champagne.<br />
The tradition of wine and the arts is firmly established. The<br />
Atlanta Symphony and the Alliance Theatre have long traditions<br />
as does the Michael C. Carlos Museum, the palatial<br />
marble facility on Emory University’s campus. Likewise,<br />
the Fernbank Museum of Natural History hosts events that<br />
combine social celebrations with enrichment programs. Tom<br />
Key’s magnificent Balzer Theatre at Herren’s next door to<br />
Downtown Atlanta’s Rialto Center for the Performing Arts<br />
incorporates wine and gourmet functions to keep the bank<br />
accounts replenished.<br />
From time immemorial New Orleans has celebrated the<br />
arts through the magic of wine. Le Petit Theatre du Vieux<br />
Carre is the oldest continuing theatrical company in North<br />
America, strategically positioned near legendary restaurants<br />
and luxury hotels.<br />
Savannah, Charleston, Tallahassee, Chattanooga, St. Augustine,<br />
Asheville and many other cities have their unique<br />
relationships that showcase music, fine art with Old and New<br />
World wines.<br />
Wines pair well with good music and visual art. Georgia<br />
O’Keefe’s flowers almost demand a bottle of Margaux, the<br />
noble Bordeaux. Gevry-Chambertain, Napoleon’s favorite<br />
red, goes down well with the love songs of Edith Piaf. Imagine<br />
a room full of celebrants enjoying Champagne with Beethoven’s<br />
“Ode to Joy” filling the air. Suddenly, there’s joie<br />
de vivre everywhere.<br />
The High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction is the largest<br />
fundraising event for the leading art museum in the Southeast..<br />
The Wine Auction is the top charity fundraising event<br />
in Atlanta, ranked by Wine Spectator as the fifth largest charity<br />
wine auction in the United States and the number-one<br />
charity wine auction benefiting the arts. The funds generated<br />
amount to more than $20 million over the last 20 years,<br />
and support the Museum’s exhibitions and educational programming<br />
providing funds for dynamic youth education<br />
programs, which draw thousands of schoolchildren to the<br />
museum each year.<br />
Spivey Hall, Georgia’s concert counterpart to Carnegie<br />
Hall on the campus of Clayton State College and University<br />
merges fundraising events with aspects of the good life. That<br />
holds true for the Mobile Opera and countless other cultural<br />
shrines.<br />
A BENEFICIAL LEGACY<br />
Hard as it may be to believe today, there was a time not long<br />
ago when much of the region was a wine vacuum. What was<br />
available was junk wine. With the introduction of fine wines<br />
from France by Jim Sanders and the instruction gained from<br />
his incomparable wine classes (thousands completed this),<br />
things gradually changed. The inclusion of wines into arts-related<br />
events particularly fund raisers owes much to Sanders<br />
and his generosity.<br />
A ticket to events like the High Museum’s annual wine auction<br />
translates into the outreach program. Few things inspire more<br />
happiness than observing children smiling as they behold a Monet,<br />
a Picasso or one of Reverend Howard Finster’s heavenly-connected<br />
works. In every group of young visitors, it’s possible that<br />
a future artist, author, actor, ballet dancer, composer or sommelier<br />
is born.<br />
DB Written by Doc Lawrence<br />
42<br />
MAY/JUNE <strong>2015</strong> • DESIGN&BUILD MAGAZINE DESIGN&BUILD MAGAZINE • MAY/JUNE <strong>2015</strong> 43
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