By virtue of geography, the Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest, in its sixth year in Lee County, is susceptible to comparisons to a little wine festival down the road called the Naples Winter Wine Festival, the biggest wine auction fundraiser in the country. So one might ask: How does another wine festival 40 minutes to the north carve out its own identity?
    “We have a different economy up here, a different style, and it is just easier for people to participate,” says festival founder Steve Machiz. The Naples Winter Wine Festival is known for its exclusivity, with tickets going for $7,500 per couple. The Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest offers tickets to its own grand tasting and auction at a much more approachable $300 per person. Its vintner dinners are offered as a separate option, with prices starting around $500.
    Along the Gulfshore, the Lee County event is considered the upstart. After all, it’s younger and has a lower profile than its Collier County neighbor, which has become famous for luring the rich, the famous and their multimillion-dollar bids to raise $74 million over the past nine years to benefit children’s charities.
    But make no mistake—the Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest is a success in its own right. It skyrocketed onto the national scene in 2009, bringing in $752,000 and ranking among the top 15 wine auction fundraisers, according to Wine Spectator. That was a 200 percent increase from the previous year, bucking the downward trend that many charity auctions saw in ’09.
    The fest was born when Machiz, a retired doctor and life-long member of the Rotary Club of Fort Myers organization, brought up the idea at a Kiwanis meeting five years ago. “When you suggest something, you are automatically the chairperson,” he jokes. He wanted to do something to raise money for The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.
    That first year under the Rotary umbrella, Machiz printed up some invitations on ready-made paper from an office supply store. He asked $250 per ticket. He talked with local chefs about coordinating with winemakers to prepare dinners at the homes of some trustees. And he planned an auction to raise money for the cause. Chefs donated their time. Winemakers agreed to participate. He sent out the invitations—and tickets sold out four months prior to the event.  

    Since then, the growth of this wine festival has been at a very controlled and intentionally slow pace. In its second year, it became clear the Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest had outgrown the capacity of the Rotary Club. With the help of Dave Copham, who is known for his work with the Naples Winter Wine Festival, Machiz formed a 501(c)(3) charitable organization called Southwest Florida Children’s Charities, and the wine festival became its own entity. It was an amicable split that allowed the wine festival to expand its ability to raise money.
    “It’s become big enough that winemakers and winery owners really want to be here,” Machiz says. “They are paying for their own tickets to come down now. They’ve seen their business grow as a result of being involved with us, so they’re happy to come back.” But the festival is still small enough that everyone feels personally involved. It’s this balance of size that makes the Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest such a success.
    Chef Harold Balink is a local chef who has donated his culinary skills every year since the festival began. “I think it has evolved the way it should as far as growth, attraction and the amount done for charity—actually, I think it’s ahead of the curve, and that makes me proud to be a part of it. But, having said that, I enjoy the smaller get-togethers with friends in homes I know.  I think it made it more fun for us chefs.”
    Top-tier wineries are featured every year. This year’s featured vintner is Fisher Vineyards, whose Cabernet is difficult to find and whose 2005 Coach Insignia fetches more than $100 a bottle. Other regularly participating wineries include Ponzi, Silver Oak, Banfi, Honig, V Madrone, Tablas Creek, Teachworth and Turnbull. The chefs pairing food with these great wines are a who’s who of local talent year after year. This year’s chefs have yet to be announced, but Balink is already sharpening his knives. “I’m not sure which winemaker I’m going to work with this year, but I think it’s going to be a big deal,” he says.
    In keeping with the big-name wineries and incredible local chefs, the Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest’s auction is a raucous highlight, with people vying for auction lots that famed wine critic Robert Parker Jr. might envy. Exceptional wines are on the block along with vineyard tours and all manner of pampering for the wine enthusiast. Still, the most popular items at last year’s auction were straight donations. “We decided to auction a neonatal incubator to be donated to The Children’s Hospital. They cost about $45,000 dollars,” recalls Machiz. “In 10 minutes, they raised $150,000. There were no trips to Napa involved here. This was just straight-up giving, straight from the heart. It was just amazing.”
    One hundred percent of proceeds from the Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest auction go directly to the beneficiaries, the primary recipient being The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. “This is a hospital where the majority of patients are no-pay or Medicaid recipients. There just isn’t much money coming in. There is no taxpayer money going to this hospital, but the expenses are huge,” Machiz says. The hospital’s mission statement says all children have the right to medical care regardless of their parent’s ability to cover the cost.
    Last year, a group of trustees toured the hospital and wanted to see some of the $45,000 neonatal incubators the wine fest donated. As they approached the neonatal ward, the nurses told them about a woman who arrived the night before and gave birth to twins weighing less than a pound each. The tour came to a somber pause in front of these two little babies who might not have survived if not for the incubators they were now occupying. No one left without tears in their eyes and a firm resolve that the job was not yet finished.  
    As the wine fest’s reach grows, it is now funding secondary education causes related to The Children’s Hospital via Edison State College and Florida Gulf Coast University. The goal is to assist in training future nurses and doctors who will treat children in need. A scholarship fund has been set up for pre-med students at FGCU. And in 2009, Edison State College received $50,000 toward the purchase of a simulator baby and other teaching equipment for the pediatric nursing lab.
    “It was our first year being affiliated with the event, and it was a wonderful experience,” says Tracey Galloway, vice president of development at Edison State College Foundation. According to the Florida Department of Education, Edison is one of the top producers of nursing degrees in the nation. That, plus the fact that a high proportion of local students and graduates stay in Southwest Florida, made Edison State a logical partner in the mission to assist The Children’s Hospital.

    The 2010 southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest is off to a spectacular start. The kick-off dinner held in October at Angelina’s Ristorante in Bonita Springs sold out in only two days. The grand tasting and auction will take place Feb. 26–27, returning to Miromar Lakes Golf and Beach Club. The pre-auction dinners will be at the homes of various trustees or donors, who set the price for each.
    Local chefs are paired with winemakers at each home, and the result is always memorable. Chef Balink recalls the first and third dinners he cooked at Lee and Felicity Butler’s home. “Both were the most rowdy groups of [wine lovers] and winemakers I’ve been a part of. They were fantastic. I remember a lot of dancing by the end of both evenings.”
    Machiz says he is surprised to see how quickly the festival has grown. But, he says, many people in Lee and Collier counties appreciate good food and good wine. “Sometimes my wife will look at me and ask, ‘Why do we do this?’  And I say, ‘It’s fun!’ She laughs and agrees. There are so many friends we have made and enjoy seeing,” Machiz says.
    While the food and the wine are the big draws, the real reason behind the event is never far from participants’ hearts. A coveted auction item each year is a piece of artwork created by a young patient from The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. It is a tradition that started when one of the trustee’s daughters, a cancer survivor, created a piece for one of the first auctions.
    Traditions like this lend a feeling of community to the Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest. It’s the community and a dedication to service that motivate the festival’s founder. “I always felt I was blessed,” says Machiz. “I just thought I could do the most good forming Southwest Florida Children’s Charities to really make some money for The Children’s Hospital.”

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“WHEN IT HAPPENS, IT’S AMAZING”

Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest Signature Vintner Juelle Fisher discusses perfect pairings—and when to throw the rules out. By Denise Scott

    You might expect juelle fisher to follow a strict set of rules when it comes to selecting wine. After all, she’s the co-founder of Napa Valley’s 37-year-old Fisher Vineyards and the signature vintner for this year’s Southwest Florida Wine & Food Fest.
    But for Fisher, it all comes down to one thing: What do you like?
    That takes the pressure off when the expansive selection of vintages and varietals can simply overwhelm. “Wine is such a personal thing. Pick things you like,” Fisher says. “Don’t listen to what somebody else likes.”Even Fisher learned something new about taste during a recent pre-bottling tasting of wine blends. “It’s so unusual for me to say, ‘I don’t like any of these wines,’” she says, “but I had green tea for breakfast.” She discovered that green tea, toothpaste, heat, cold, even one’s mood can affect the taste of a wine.
    She says current trends are making red wines that were once dry more palatable. Just try the Bordeaux-cabernet blends. “They take away dry tannins,” Fisher says. “Now they’re aerating it a lot, so it’s softer and more approachable.”
    Chardonnays are becoming more acidic and lighter. “We keep it in oak for a long time so the oak flavors fall to the background,” she says. “It’s in the barrel 18 months instead of four to six months. It’s a lot more costly to do it that way, but there’s such a lovely balance between the bright acidity and the lovely mouth feel.”
    Fisher truly enjoys participating in the festival’s vintner dinners, for which her wines are paired with a chef’s dishes. Marshall Hanno, a founding trustee of the wine fest and of the Southwest Florida Children’s Charities, showcased Fisher’s wines at one such dinner at his home in 2008. They were paired with cuisine by Chef Nick Costanzo from Angelina’s Ristorante in Bonita Springs. “We had a great time,” Hanno says. “Juelle was going from table to table, person to person. She’s a great supporter of our effort.” Fisher returned in October 2009 as the featured vintner for the kick-off dinner that drew 120 to Angelina’s.
    It becomes obvious rather quickly to Fisher whether the chefs she works with are wine lovers. “Figuring out pairings is really an art that roughly 10 percent of chefs spend any time thinking about. Many chefs think only about their food and the sauces. Nick is a rare bird. He would say, ‘Trust me.’ Other chefs like to totally dominate the meal. Wine and food should be equal components within the meal. When it happens, it’s amazing.”
    People don’t have to rely on chefs to create great pairings, she says. They can learn to do it themselves. “So much of it is being constantly aware when you’re cooking and tasting wine so you experience it. I went to a dinner where they paired [Fisher] Unity with halibut—and it worked. It’s about just listening to the food. So much of it is very personal. I don’t think there are hard and fast rules. Surprises are so good. You really need to throw the rules out.”

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