October, 1996
Insight
By Larry Walker

David Reynolds still remembers very well his first glass of wine. It was on Christmas Day and he was 12 years old. His grandfather poured him a glass of 1875 Madeira. "I remember exactly what it tasted like. I thought at the time it was too strong."

Reynolds, who was born in London in 1953, grew up with wine on the table as his family Lived in London, Spain and Italv so it isn't surprising that he is now a specialist in wine auctions and fund raising events for the wine industry.

"I don't like to call myself an auctioneer though," Reynolds cornInented during an interview following the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Harvest Wine Auction on Labor Day weekend. "I'm more of an entertainer, really. A charity auction is a very different ariair than vvLat goes on at Christie's in London where you don't even realize you are at an auction."

Reynolds is one of the few, perhaps the only, auctioneer speciali~ing in fundraising events. "The line is getting blurred, with some of the showroom auctioneers working to develop the drama and entertainment of the charity events. I think that is one thing pushing up the prices at all the U.S. auctions, " he said.

Revnolds came to the United States in l975. He saw an advertisement for a job at the Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills and spent three days studying wine at the Los Angeles Public Library. "I thought that would give me enough knowledge, combined with my British accent, to get me a job, and it did," Reynolds recalled with a laugh.

Since 1975 Reynolds has followed what he calls an "eclectic collection of j. careers." He's worked as a wholesaler, sommelier, radio cornmentator and–briefly–as a winemaker.He has also developed computer software, but is now concentrating on the fast-growing charity wine auction niche.

"I wouldn't want the word to get spread around, but there is very little skill involved in being an auctioneer. If you can count from 1 to 10,000, that's about all you need. That, and the formal rules of the auction. What I do is far from the Christie's showroom auction; it's all about shovvmanship. The real skill comes in learning how to read an auction audience and how to keep them interested in what is going on."

He considers the recent Sonoma Valley auction a success, for example, because the amount of-money raised was up over a year ago and because most of the audience was still there 4'/2hours after the auction started. "I think that's proof that thev were having a good time."

Revnolds began his auction work 12 vears ago. "I was visiting my folks in London when I got a call asking me if I'd a like to do the Sun Valley Wine Auction. That sounded pretty good, so I said, 'Sure, why not?"'

In recent years he has worked as an auctioneer for the California Wine Auction in Livermore, the Intemational Center for Earth Concerns, the Junior League of Napa and Sonoma, New Mexico Symphony, Northwest Wine Auction, Poncho (the lavish Seattle auction), Hospice of San Jose and the San Francisco Urban School. Reynolds' work is highly regarded in the wine comrnunity. Anthony Dias Blue, the executive director of the Sonoma Valley auction, calls him "my dream auctioneer."

Reynolds takes a different approach than most auctioneers. He doesn't believe you can walk in at the last minute and do an effective job. "I want to work with the group over the year. What I do is teach a methodology that seems to work very well. It involves complete event planning, not just a one shot approach," he said.

Reynolds said the turning point in his approach carne a few vears ago when an auction was a complete disaster. There was a power failure, among other things. "Everything that could go wrong at an auction went wrong. I realized then that I needed to leam how to deal with an event that becomes a disaster, so I started doing improvisation comedy and taking theater lessons. What the improv does is make you stand by and see an event from the audience perspective and start building a common reality. People actually like it when things go wrong, so what l try to do is build the funny side of it. If the speakers go out or a lot fails to show up or whatever, I'm ready to deal with it.

Reynolds works regularly in San Francisco with an improv comedy group. Asked the name of the group, he said, i "It doesn't have a name. We have to improv it."

Concerning the future of the charity auction, Reynolds said one of the keys is ~ to get corporate sponsorship. For exam- ii ple, the Sonoma Valley Auction was sponsored by Arnencan Airlines. "It does two things for you. It allows you to meet a lot of upfront costs and it gives you public visibility and status."

Asked about the trend in charity auctions to emphasize lifestvle events (travel, ~ celebrity dinners and the like) Revnolds | said he believes that trend will continue to grow.

"First, the lifestyle events raise vast | sums of money. You might get $15,000 bid on a trip to Europe. And second, the wineries have less and less to offer. The industry is hit so much for donations that ~ they need to tum to the lifestyle events. jij A few years ago, for exarnple, there were a lot of 6 liter bottles of wine donated. Now you see rnore 5 liter and 3 liter."

Reynolds first came to the Bay Area in 1980 on the staff of John Walker & Co., a carriage trade retail store in San Fran- i cisco. From 1984-1986 he managed The Bottle Shop in La Jolla.

Thinking of his years in the wine business, Reynolds said he believes the key to making good wine is the high pressure hose. "Right. I learned that dur

ing my one stint as a winemaker. I was helping Doug Fletcher during the crush of 1982, making Martin Ray wines in Saratoga. Doug was called away by a death in the family halfway through the crush and I had to finish on my own. He left me with a list of instructions. I had no idea what I was doing, but I did learn i to appreciate the high pressure hose. I ~ also became very conscious of the role bees play in winemaking," he said.

Reynolds is married to Colleen Buckley, who has a marketing communications company in San Francisco.

"I want you to know that I think I have the best job in the world, bar none. I can't imagine doing anything else. I love the arts, I love the theater, but this is as much fun as it gets," Reynold said.