Big spend on wine for good cause

Rotorua collector Frank Grapl with some of the 25 bottles of wine he paid $1500 for at an online charity auction. Photo / Stephen Parker

Consummate collector Frank Grapl went on Trade Me to find a wall cabinet to store his expanding hobby.

Instead the Western Heights resident ended up spending $1500 in a live online auction for 25 bottles of New Zealand wine signed by prominent people involved in sport, media, politics, television, cinema and business.

For Mr Grapl, a casual wine drinker who paid $145 for one of the bottles of wine - an Upper Moutere Partington Vineyard 2008 Pinot Noir, signed by former All Black Bryan Williams - it was money well spent.

Mr Grapl was the single biggest bidder in last month's auction, organised by Paeroa-based aquaculture organic fertiliser company AgriSea, to raise money for teen cancer charity Canteen, Starship Children's Hospital, SPCA and Sustainable Coastlines.

A total of 364 bottles of wine, donated by vineyards and signed by 74 people, raised $10,780 for the charities.

"What really caught my eye was that Cliff Curtis had signed one of the bottles and I thought if he has done it must be for a good cause," Mr Grapl said.

"Quite a few people I know have had cancer, including my mother, so the fundraising cause was pretty close to my heart.

"I just can't imagine how hard it is for these young children to be suffering, and what they have to go through."

"It was full on and after I bid for the first bottle, I got more determined to bid for more and more bottles," he said.

AgriSea sales manager Lindsay Wehipeihana said the family-owned company was "overwhelmed" with the response from vineyards for the auction.

The bottles were displayed in the 'Great Wall of Wine' promotion during the annual Bragato Winemakers conference in Blenheim last month.

The highest price paid for a bottle was $900 for a Messenger Wines Cabernet Merlot, bought by television host Paul Henry.