For the Children
Harvest Festival unites wine lovers in support of charities
The 2023 edition of the fundraising Harvest Wine & Food Festival attracted a sellout crowd of sophisticated palates and wine connoisseurs whose generous support of the event will benefit a large host of Northwest Florida nonprofits focused on the needs of children.
The event is a project of the Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation (DCWAF), whose board disseminates proceeds. Hundreds of volunteers supplied by event charities contribute significantly to the success of the large-scale event held at WaterColor in South Walton County.
Founded in 2005, the DCWAF has distributed $32 million, impacting the lives of more than 100,000 youth, including many afflicted by health issues and abuse. DCWAF has been recognized as one of the nation’s Top 10 Charity Wine Auctions in the U.S. by Wine Spectator magazine for more than a decade.
Megan Skupny with Lang & Reed Napa Valley
Emerald Coast Magazine and realtor/broker Brad Dahler of Scenic Sotheby’s International Realty Dahler & Co. combined to sponsor the VIP tent at the 2023 festival. There, nine celebrated wineries poured samples of elevated vintages. Represented were Roy Estate, Alpha Omega, Lang & Reed Napa Valley, Gamba Vineyards and Winery, Domaine Della, Vinuv, Maze Row Wine Merchants, Phifer Pavitt and William Cole Vineyards.
Lang & Reed, a family operation — the business is named after founders Tracey and John Skupny’s two sons — participated in a celebrity winemaker dinner held as part of the festival weekend at Fonville Press Market + Café in Alys Beach.
The Skupnys worked as wine stewards in Kansas City before arriving in California’s Napa Valley in 1984. In 1993, they developed a prototype that was true to wines of the Bordeaux region of France, and Lang & Reed Napa Valley was born. Now, a second generation of Skupnys is developing wines of its own.
The aromas of good things to eat filled the VIP tent.
Southern Belle Catering in Santa Rosa Beach offered smoked pork belly and a crawfish dish. The Henderson Beach Resort served pickled shrimp agave chili. Seagar’s Prime Steaks & Seafood, located at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, contributed New York strip steak that was prepped in a sous vide bath and then cooked in a skillet with winter truffles and a bordelaise sauce.
Seagar’s Prime Steak & Seafood at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, Executive Chef Fleetwood Covington III, Orel Wright, Angie Medich and Jasmine Brown.
The Salty Butcher, a Santa Rosa Beach butcher shop with an Old World feel, thinly sliced a prosciutto ham for sampling by salivating festivalgoers.
Bay Breeze Patio brought a brick-lined cooker to the party, and Chef John O’Neil of Dude Food Fire, joined by Chef Fleetwood Covington from Seagar’s, had at it. Covington arrived with a private stash of Wagyu beef that he closely guarded.
Better Together Beverage + Events stirred up three craft cocktails:
Cool Beans. Cathead vodka, cold brew, Hoodoo chicory liqueur, pumpkin spice, honey, cinnamon.
Busy With the Fizzy. Cathead bitter orange vodka, white cranberry, ginger, lime, sparkling wine.
Paint the Town Red. Old Soul bourbon, mulled wine, lemon, maple, cranberry, almond, gold dust orange.
McKenzie Burleigh and Artist Lindsay Tobias of Santa Rosa Beach.
Epic Photo captured images of posers, and Fisher Flowers dressed up the event with florals and decor.
Artist Lindsay Tobias of Santa Rosa Beach fascinated onlookers by taking brush to canvas. She specializes in large-scale pieces and has particular fascinations with impasto painting, abstraction and skin tones.
Singer/songwriter Stevie Monce, who moved to the Emerald Coast from Nashville, played original tunes and at one point invited fellow musician Sarah Davidson, whom he knew in the Music City, to join him on stage.
Together, they sang “Waterfalls” by TLC — Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to — and festivalgoers danced and sang along with them. Right then, WaterColor made any waterfall not worth pursuing.
Harvest Festival charities for 2023 included AMIkids, The Arc of the Emerald Coast, Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast, Caring and Sharing of South Walton, Children in Crisis, Children’s Volunteer Health Network, Ellison McCraney Ingram Foundation, Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center, Emerald Coast Autism Center, Habitat for Humanity of Walton County, Mental Health Association of Okaloosa/Walton Counties, Opportunity Place, Point Washington Medical Clinic, Shelter House of Northwest Florida, Westonwood Ranch, Youth Village.
