Heart's Delight!

We attended the American Heart Association's annual Wine Tasting and Auction Gala at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Day four of the Heart's Delight Celebration was full of master class wine tastings, seminars, and a grand tasting and auction with winemakers and celebrity chefs. We snapped Princeton University's Brad Pottieger, Stella & Dot's Charlotte Pottieger, and West Potomac High School's Bonnie and Frank Bontempo.

The Bordeaux master class was an intimate, formal seated wine tasting, which included 2013 vintage wines that were personally poured by its Châteaux owners and directors. Here, Phélan Ségur's Pamela Wittman, Daimler's Jake Jones, IFC's Veronica Jones, and Château Lafon-Rochet's Lucas Leclercq.

Guests also attended seminars like Booze in Chocolate, Thomas Jefferson: The First Wine Connoisseur, Rum from Start to Finish. Here, Washington Post's Dave McIntyre, Pacific Prime Wines' Eric Platt, and Lily McIntyre.

Celebrity chefs offered bites during the live and silent auctions. Our favorites: The Dabney's sorghum glaze pork belly on a sweet potato bun, Tosca's braised short rib raviolio, and Succotash's bourbon chocolate pudding with whipped matcha. Here, Château Canon's Nicolas Audebert, Château Guiraud's Luc Planty, and Château Barde-Haut's Charlotte Chasseriaud and Helene Garcin-Leveque.

Heather Mahoney, Travis Holler & Richelle Castillo contributed to this issue.