Now in its ninth year, the Wine Auction & Celebration has raised almost $1.25 million for the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, honored last year by the South Carolina Arts Commission as the top arts organization in the state.

The money raised from this multi-day wine festival benefits the Arts Center's Education and Outreach programs, which include student field trips, community festivals and ArtsReach, an arts enrichment program that sends professional artists into schools and after-school centers to work with students and teachers on a variety of projects.

The first Wine Auction & Gala - held in 1996 as part of the Arts Center's grand opening festivities - netted the nonprofit organization $70,000. Over the years, the event has been expanded to include celebrity chef dinners, a champagne and caviar reception and wine tasting workshops.

Honorary chairmen such as Diane and John Livingston, owners of one of the best-known cabernet vineyards in Napa Valley, Hubert Millet, chairman of Seagrams Wines, and Philip Wente, owner and manager of the oldest continuously operated family-owned winery in California, helped raise the prestige of the black tie affair to become Hilton Head's single-largest fundraising multi-event.

The list of wine experts who have served as auctioneers is just as impressive. Among the standouts are Ann Barry Colgin, a renowned Napa Valley vintner, Fritz Hatton, principal auctioneer and international wine consultant for Christie's, Ursula Hermacinski, the first woman ever to serve as auctioneer at the world-famous Napa Valley Wine Auction, and David Reynolds, America's premier charity wine auctioneer.