STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The foyer of The Argyros was transformed into an upscale wine cellar Thursday night as patrons of the Sun Valley Museum of Art crowded into the lobby for the annual Sun Valley Wine Auction cocktail party.
The vision of white came with vintners offering tastings from a circular platform in the middle to information on silent auction lots tucked away in wine crates mounted on the wall.
While National Geographic photographer Sofia Jaramillo created portraits of attendees in the Bailey Studio, Sam Dungan chatted with people about the unique history of Revana Wines, one of 25 vintners taking part in this year’s Sun Valley Wine Auction.
Revana, he said, was founded by Dr. Madaiah Revana, who grew up in a family of 11 children in Southern India outside Bangalore. There, he helped his father grow coconut, bananas and mangoes until he went off to college.
He arrived in America with $8 seeking postgraduate medical training and became a cardiologist in Houston, specializing in treating vein and artery diseases.
It was his fellow cardiologists who inspired him to begin collecting wine. He loved it so much that he bought land in 1997 establishing a vineyard in Napa. But he wasn’t satisfied. Looking for the ideal region to produce Pinot Noirs that could rival those from Burgundy, he started a vineyard in the Dundee Hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
He established a third vineyard in Argentina after a trip there.
All are organically farmed, and all three have achieved a high pedigree with Cabernet sauvignon in Napa, Pinot Noir, its unique flavor coming from the volcanic soil there. And the Argentina vineyard produces a high-elevation Malbec that has been honored as the No. 1 Malbec in Argentina.
Ravana takes part in wine auctions for the American Heart Association centered around children struggling with heart disease. And he’s done a few with the Sun Valley Wine Auction, which auctioned off such lots this year as a wine expedition to Mendoza, Argentina, and ticket to a Yankees game to raise money to fund arts education programming for the youth of the Wood River Valley.
“It’s incredible to partner with these events where we can contribute what we do,” said Dungan. “And at the heart of it all is a love for good wine.”