Don't Miss

¡Salud! moves Oregon wine auction to Allison Inn & Spa

By Eric Degerman on May 27, 2014

The Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg, Ore., will celebrate its fourth anniversary as Oregon's wine country luxury lodge in September. (Photo courtesy of Laura Davidson Public Relations)

The Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg, Ore., will serve as the new home for the annual Salud! Oregon Pinot Noir Auction, which this year is scheduled for Nov. 14-15. (Photo courtesy of Laura Davidson Public Relations)

NEWBERG, Ore. – ¡Salud!, a program that provides health care to seasonal vineyard workers and their families in Oregon, has announced that its annual Oregon Pinot Noir Auction for fundraising will be moving this fall to the Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg.

And this year’s second annual Summertime ¡Salud! – The Big Dinner will be Thursday, July 24, in Dayton at Stoller Family Estate, recently named Wine Press Northwest magazine’s Pacific Northwest Winery of Year.

Event organizers are hoping the Nov. 14-15 auction at The Allison can eclipse the $710,000 raised last year at Domaine Drouhin Oregon. More than $10 million has been sent to Tuality Healthcare in the 23-year history of the program.

“We were looking for a way to enliven the event, so focusing the weekend festivities in wine country brings our guests closer to our mission and makes it easier for them to enjoy our Vintners Circle member wineries during their stay,” Corby Stonebraker-Soles, co-chair of the ¡Salud! steering committee, said in a news release. “We are very grateful for the opportunity provided by our partnership with The Allison Inn & Spa.”

In 2012, Tuality Healthcare reported that 4,009 workers and family members registered in the program, and more than 7,400 medical and dental encounters were documented. Through Salud! workers receive access to primary care, health education, screenings, dental care, assistance with medical paperwork and more.

One of the new features for this year’s weekend November auction is that all festivities will be held in the Willamette Valley. And The Allison Inn is offering a limited number of weekend event packages.

Allison to offer special weekend lodging packages

Dundee winemaker Joe Dobbes joins dinner guests for a toast during the annual Oregon Wine Auction. (Photo by Andrea Johnson Photography/Courtesy of Trellis Growth Partners)

As the new location for the Saturday’s Dinner and Auction Gala, The Allison Inn & Spa is closing its doors to the public and making its rooms available only to ¡Salud! guests Nov. 14 – 15. A limited number of weekend packages are for sale, which includes two nights lodging, transportation and two tickets to the ¡Salud! Cuvée Tasting & Auction at Domaine Drouhin Oregon, and two tickets to the Dinner and Auction Gala, plus breakfast Saturday morning.

To purchase a weekend package, which starts at $1,500 per couple, call ¡Salud! at 503-681-1850 or The Allison Inn & Spa at 877-294-2525.

Tickets to the ¡Salud! Friday and Saturday events are available online at https://tualityhealth.ejoinme.org/salud2014.

Sunny Jin, executive chef of The Allison’s JORY Restaurant will provide the catering for Summertime ¡Salud! – The Big Dinner at Stoller Family Estate. The July 24 event is on the eve of the International Pinot Noir Celebration. The evening will include an alfresco tasting with 18 wineries from Oregon, California and France as well as a wine marketplace with rare ¡Salud! cuvées and magnums. Tickets are available for purchase online.

¡Salud! was created in 1991 by a group of Oregon winery owners and Tuality Healthcare physicians to help seasonal workers who cannot meet their basic health needs with only a few months’ income to stretch over a full year.

Last year’s fall Big Board Auction at Domaine Drouhin Oregon featured limited cases of exclusive 2012 Oregon Pinot Noirs from 43 wineries who have formed the Vintners Circle of ¡Salud! And sparked by gifts from the Erath Family Foundation and Willamette Valley Vineyards, the Saturday auction raised fund to support a new mobile wellness clinic.

featured ticker

About Eric Degerman

Eric Degerman is the President and CEO of Great Northwest Wine. He is a journalist with more than 30 years of daily newspaper experience and has been writing about wine since 1998. He co-founded Wine Press Northwest magazine with Andy Perdue and served as its managing editor for a decade. He is a frequent wine judge at international wine competitions throughout North America and orchestrates 10 Northwest competitions each year.