In only a couple of weeks, Lyric Opera will host its beloved 2023 Wine Auction, which will take place over the course of three days from Thursday, May 11 to Saturday, May 13. As one of Chicago’s most glamorous events that attracts wine lovers and support globally, the planning committee expects to raise a whopping $2.5 million from the auction to go towards supporting the renowned opera house. That goal surpasses the impressive $2.1 million that was raised at the last auction back in 2018. 

After a five-year hiatus — two years more than the usual wait, due to the pandemic — avid patrons of the arts and wine aficionados will not be disappointed with this year’s three-day spectacle. Thursday will consist of several Featured Vintner Dinners for sponsors only, and expects to have 260 guests in attendance; Friday will be the Featured Vintner Tasting Reception, where 31 vintners can meet guests and give samples of their wines; and Saturday is the live auction, which will feature 55 lots with approximately 450 guests expected.  

To get an inside look at what guests can expect at this swanky celebration of opera and wine, Chicago Star sat down with the 2023 Wine Auction’s planning committee: Co-Chairs Nancy S. Searle and Erica L. Sandner, as well as Vice Chairs Suzanne W. Mulshine and Eileen Austin Murphy.

Dive into our exclusive interview below and be sure to RSVP using the form on their website to attend.

Overall Planning of the Auction

Chicago Star:“The anticipation for this event must be bubbling after the delay from the pandemic. Tell me how this year’s Wine Auction will be different from previous years.”

Nancy Searle: “I think there’s a great deal of anticipation for this event. People are really excited. This event is structured differently — we’ll begin with dinners in private homes and clubs on Thursday, where our featured vintners' wines will be paired with menus exclusively to showcase the wines. I think they’re going to create a very special feeling in the beginning since we’ve never done that before. Saturday night will start with a champagne reception, followed by dinner on stage with wines of our honored guest Maison Drouhin, then the auction will begin.”

Erica Sandner: “One other new piece is that global premium spirits leader Beam Suntory — who has generously donated several of the auction items — is the Reception Sponsor this year. They’ve created a specialty cocktail that will be served during the reception. And one of the other little takeaways is going to be a special recipe book that they created especially for the event.” 

Chicago Star: “What roles did you all play in putting together this event?”

Erica Sandner: “Nancy and I are co-chairing the auction, along with Suzanne and Eileen. And our role has been to cultivate auction lots and then work closely with the Lyric staff in terms of planning of the event. That involves everything from securing transportation, storage, packaging, and delivery of wine, as well as coordinating the new events that involve the private dinners. We’re helping pair our hosts with chefs, who are creating their own menus for the dinner.”

Chicago Star: “What are you all most excited about for this auction?”

Suzanne Mulshine: “For me, this is the first time I’ve worked on it and for the past five years we've been working on it. During COVID, we’ve all helped put together quarterly events to keep the excitement alive. We have so many incredible donors in Chicago and restaurant owners and vintners who assisted us to keep this alive. So it’s fun to have it all come together. And it’s wonderful for the city also because the city needs Lyric Opera.”

Nancy Searle: “To add onto that, we did remote wine tastings early on, but then we had an in-person event with our new maestro Enrique Mazzola, who happens to be the worldwide ambassador for the Wines of Montepulciano. And he did a tasting at Coco Pazzo and prepared the menu that was sourced totally from Tuscany. He also lectured on the wines at the dinner.”

Special Guests and Vintners

Chicago Star: “What went into choosing the honored guest, Maison Joseph Drouhin?”

Nancy Searle: “One of our advisors recommended Maison Drouhin after just having dinner with him in New York. So Erica took that and ran with it, securing him for us.”

Chicago Star: “Tell me about this year’s selection of vintners and how they were chosen.”

Nancy Searle: “We work hard to establish relationships. Some of them are the same vintners from our 2018 event, which was the first time we actually had featured vintners. We had 15 or 16 that year, and this year we have 31. We’re very excited to welcome them to Chicago. It’s an opportunity for them to meet our citizens and intimate opportunities to extol the purchase of their wine, and for us it’s an opportunity to get to know them better and enjoy their wine. 

We’ve been listed as one of the top fifteen charitable wine auctions in the United States. The first year we’ve ever done it, we raised around $125,000, and we’ve come a long way since then.”

Erica Sandner: “Many of these featured vintners have partnered with Lyric for many of the auctions, and what traditionally might have been a simple donation of a wine lot, we really feel this is a more dynamic relationship that we’re creating so that we’re also giving back to them. They’re in the business of selling wine, and we’re opening up our audience to help them carry forth their initiatives.”

Thursday’s Featured Vintners Dinners

Chicago Star: “Tell me about the Featured Vintners Dinners and any exciting surprises people can expect.”

Nancy Searle: “Approximately half the dinners are in Chicago, one is in Evanston, three are in Winnetka, one in Lake Forest, and one in Lake Bluff. We’re really excited about this since it’s the first time, and we’re so grateful for the Lyric staff helping us to put this on. The hosts have made sure their menus are paired beautifully with the winemakers. Every menu will be unique and all the hosts are pulling out all the stops to make their dinner super special.

Everyone will take home a little surprise at the end of each dinner, including a printed copy of the menu.”

Erica Sandner: “The hosts and hostesses have been so gracious and enthusiastic about letting guests into their homes and clubs. We don’t have the exact menus for each dinner, but some will have two vintners and one dinner will only have sparkling wine. The honored guest dinner will have a surprise performance as well.”

Friday’s Featured Vintners Tasting Reception

Chicago Star: “For the Featured Vintners Tasting Reception, what performances can guests look forward to?”

Nancy Searle: “That’s a surprise! But we’re going to have Ann Ziff from the jewelry house Tamsen Z in New York — she’s the jeweler to Renée Fleming — and she’ll be presenting the show. And we’ll have a watchmaker from Florida named Goldsmith and Complications who will be doing a watch show.

J&L Catering will provide the hors d’oeuvres. They’ve presented a fabulous tasting and everyone is going to feel so spoiled — be sure to save room for dessert!”

Auction Lots: Wines, Experiences, & Dinners

Chicago Star: “For the auction itself, tell me some of your favorite experiences and collections from the catalog — how did you all go about choosing them?”

Erica Sandner: “Some of them revealed themselves through the process. We had a lot of ideas that evolved; for example, we were working on a safari as well as a trip to South Africa, and ultimately it is now one overall trip that’s really grand and typically difficult to put these pieces together all in one trip.”

Nancy Searle: “We do have one lot that we’re auctioning off before the wine auction, which is a trip to London that includes a trip to the Sipsmith Distillery, which is the only gin distillery in London. That’s courtesy of Beam Suntory. And the trip also goes to Royal Ascot to view the invitation-only Royal Enclosure and that includes two fascinators made especially for you. Then you would travel to Kent and visit Gusbourne Estate for a wine tasting — they did the sparkling wine for the queen’s jubilee celebration.

The auction is pretty evenly distributed when it comes to the lots. There’s about a third wine lots, a third extraordinary trips, and a third special dinners. The latter might be something like a tequila tasting in Rick Bayless’ garden by renowned tequila expert Beam Suntory; or it might be a dinner at one of our board of directors’ members’ homes, one of which is a renowned chef in his own right.”

Supporting Lyric Opera, The Arts & The Community

Chicago Star: “Tell me about the overall importance of the auction — it’s not just a fun time to dress up and taste delicious wine, but also goes towards benefiting the opera. How are the proceeds used throughout the year to support the opera house?”

Nancy Searle: “The proceeds are used for Lyric Unlimited, which reaches out to school children across the metropolitan area as well as the Ryan Opera Center where we train up-and-coming performing artists. And the proceeds also go towards productions. Lyric is one of the cultural treasures of Chicago and the world-class productions are incredible.”

Chicago Star: “What are some of your favorite moments from past events?”

Nancy Searle: “In 2018, when they opened the doors and we walked in and the arches were twinkling with lights... We created a stage set basically. And for dinner, the stage was set to a garden, and after dinner, we switched the screens and created the wine cellar Chateau Margaux and turned off the twinkling lights and under-lit these arches so they looked like ceiling staves. It was kind of magical for me.

Also, for most guests, having dinner around the stage is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And when you look at it and see how large the theater is and realize the opera stars project their voices with no mic…it’s just overwhelmingly impressive. ”

Erica Sandner: “Before I joined the Women’s Board, I was attending an auction with my late husband and my brother-in-law and we were sitting at the table. They were bidding on a lot, not realizing they were bidding against each other!”

Eileen Murphy: “In 2015, it was the first wine auction I’d attended. And just walking into the Grand Foyer and just seeing everyone so beautifully turned out and with such excitement, that it just highlighted to me how important it was to support cultural institutions and how enthusiastic the city is about doing that.”

Suzanne Mulshine: “I would say the same as Eileen. I had never been to one before 2018, and just walking into the room and seeing how important it was to Chicago, I didn’t get it before. It was just mind-blowing.”  

Chicago Star: “Tell me about the work that you ladies do as part of the Lyric Women’s Board and Lyric’s Board of Directors.”

Nancy Searle: “As part of the Board of Directors, I’m engaged in development for Lyric. And on the Women’s Board, I have served as the wine auction chairperson a few times and I’ve served as president a few years ago. We support the opera by being hostesses of different events and by reaching out to new audiences. We’re a hardworking board that does two or three events every year, and typically focus our fundraising on Lyric Opera.”

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