One of the fastest-growing charity wine auctions in the United States is A Culinary Evening with the California Winemasters, held in Los Angeles for the benefit of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The 2007 edition last week raised $1.52 million net, an increase of 9 percent over last year, and bringing the total raised in the 18-year history of the event to more than $14 million. In 2006 the auction ranked among the six top charity auctions in the nation.

 The Saturday evening event featured a walk-around wine tasting involving more than 60 wineries, two-third of which were from Napa Valley.

Guests placed bids on nearly 700 silent auction lots in six different categories, then sat down for a live auction featuring 46 lots. The entire event lasted just a little more than four hours. Live auction lots offered by Napa Valley wineries were responsible for a large part of the total raised.

The top bid came from an unusual lot from a heretofore relatively unknown winery, Garric Cellars, of Calistoga. The proprietors, Ricardo Cajulis and Gary Ochwat, offered to the top bidder three bottles of their cabernet sauvignon every year for the rest of the bidder’s life, plus a 3-liter bottle of their 2003 vintage to take home that night, along with lunch for eight at their home. Two people engaged in spirited bidding, and one finally won at $10,000, but Cajulis and Ochwat agreed to duplicate the lot for the runner-up at $9,000.

The next highest bid involving Napa Valley was a dinner for three couples at the French Laundry, accompanied by a complete vertical tasting of Gemstone from 1997 through 2003. All three couples will stay overnight at Meadowood Resort. That lot brought a high bid of $15,000. Gemstone figured in another of the top lots — a 3-liter bottle of the 2004 vintage that went for $11,000.

Right behind the French Laundry-Gemstone package, at $14,000 each, were two lots — a two-night stay at Peter Michael Winery and a visit to Schramsberg Vineyards, along with dining at William Cole Vineyards, plus wines from all three wineries; and a four-day winemaking camp at Ehlers Estate for six people, plus dinners at Anomaly Vineyards and Bighorn Cellars and a tour and tasting at Bond.

A dinner with Rudy von Strasser of von Strasser Winery catered by Grace Restaurant, and a 9-liter bottle of 2004 von Strasser reserve drew $12,000.

A 3-liter bottle of Pam Starr’s 2004 Crocker & Starr Stone Place cabernet sauvignon was worth $10,000, and a 109-bottle assortment of Mt. Veeder wines in a Sub-Zero wine cooler pulled $9,500.

D.R. Stephens Estate and Hunnicutt Wines teamed with Bistro 45 in Pasadena (owned by Robert Simon, who operated Stomp in Calistoga) to provide dinner and wines, a lot that brought in $8,500.

A magnum of 2003 Screaming Eagle was sold for $7,500, a 3-liter bottle of 2003 Harlan Estate went for $6,600, and a dinner for eight at Joseph Phelps Vineyards, accompanied by JPV wines, drew $6,000.