Atlantans line up to toast High Museum Wine Auction

The capstone event of this week's High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction is already sold out, but there are several others with tickets still available for those in search of a vintage experience.

The 23rd annual auction runs Wednesday through Saturday, and tickets went from going, going to gone for Saturday's big finale, the "Vintners' Reception and Live Auction" at Atlantic Station. Also sold out is Wednesday's "Ladies Luncheon," a new event at which chef Anne Quatrano and various guest female chefs and vintners will prepare a special meal at Bacchanalia.

Benefiting the museum’s exhibition and educational programming, the High’s largest annual fund-raising event netted more than $1.5 million in 2014.

Reservations are still available for “Dine Around Dinners” on Wednesday and Thursday featuring some of the world’s leading winemakers partnered with Atlanta’s top chefs in their restaurants, preparing one-of-a-kind, way off-the-menu, multi-course meals and wine pairings ($99-$200).

Tickets are available as well for "Tasting Seminars" hosted Thursday and Friday at the Castle, across 15th Street from the Woodruff Arts Center. Covering topics hand-picked by winemakers and sommeliers, including "Take a Walk on the Wild Side (of Wine)," these events feature some of the world's highest rated and most unusual wines ($40-$100).

Limited tickets still may be available for “Winemaker Dinners” on Thursday, pairing chefs and winemakers from around the country for meals in private homes ($350; call Carole Ashworth at 404-733-4543).

The theme of this year’s auction is “Uncork a Southern Tradition” and, indeed, the High event has become quite the tradition. Having raised more than $22 million over 22 years, the Wine Auction is the eighth largest charity wine auction in the U.S., according to Wine Spectator, and the No. 1 charity wine auction benefiting the arts.

So how to explain that sparkling success?

“It’s hard not to have a great time when you’re surrounded by a bunch of people drinking wonderful wine served to them by the very people who made it,” the auction’s chief taster Dick Denny notes in the auction catalog. (With that intriguing job title, we’d all expect his bottle to be eternally half full, right? Still, it’s hard to argue the point…)