Like the Naples, Florida wine auction, the Napa Valley Auction has a strong car component. This year Garen and Shari Staglin of the Staglin Family Vineyard have arranged a special car lot for bidders. The winners of the lot will go to the Calabria region of italy with Garen and Shari staying at the finest hotels and enjoying world-class food and wines in Milan and Venice and the Piedmont region. The car element is that the party will travel around Italy in two brand new Maserati Quattroporte sedans, receive a guided tour of the Maserati factory in Modena with lunch at the world-renowned Panini Collection of historic Maseratis and have the opportunity to test-drive the new Maserati GranTurismo coupe.

Tickets for the auction went on sale March 29. This year's events include nearly twenty-five pre-Auction parties and Open Houses, known as "Auction Eve" on Thursday, June 7. On June 8, Taste Napa Valley will feature over 100 vintners pouring wines along side over 75 signature local restaurants and artisan food producers at the Trinchero Family Estates Main Street winery in St Helena. The live auction on Saturday June 9th includes 46 rare and one-of-a-kind lots at the Meadowood Napa Valley resort. The event will be hosted by Dana Carvey and usually features all sorts of travel and celebrity-themed lots as well as the chance to bid on special wine lots and vinter events. The Classic Package cost $5,000 per couple and includes invitations to the Thursday parties, the Friday events, the Saturday and Sunday events, a bidding paddle and an auction catalog.

Today marks the start of Night of a Thousand Dinners, a fundraising initiative of Adopt-A-Minefield. The event takes place each year and actually spans from March 1 to April 4. The charity drive focuses on gatherings from cocktail parties to luncheons to raise money for landmine removal and survivor assistance. The Night of a Thousand Dinners website gives potential hosts cues on how to structure these events (recipes, landmine facts, etc.). Over four million dollars have been raised and dinners have taken place in more than 50 countries around the world. On April 4 in New York at the United Nations a benefit dinner will celebrate Kofi Annan and will feature cocktails and hors d'oeuvres along with a silent food and wine-themed auction that includes a luxury cruise aboard SeaDream Yacht Club  and dinner for two at DB Bistro Moderne plus an autographed copy of Daniel Boulud's "Cooking in NYC" cookbook. An online auction held at Charity Folks is full of treats for epicures including a "Chef for a Day" experience at the legendary Chez Panisse with Alice Waters and a trip for 10 to Aspen for a private day of cooking lessons with a celebrity chef at the Aspen Cooking School.