The first time Loren Chumley attended the Nashville Wine Auction’s l’Eté du Vin, she didn’t know anything about the organization. Now, she is its new president and CEO. After that first event, Loren was hooked and quickly got involved co-chairing its signature fundraisers, Pairings and l’Eté du Vin, joining the board and serving as its chair. At home, she and her husband, Scott Peterson, started hosting many of the nonprofit’s private vintner dinners, auction events and more while building an enviable wine cellar.
Last fall, Loren, then a tax attorney and partner at KPMG, was pondering what her next career would be because she had reached “the magic age at which partners retire” from the firm and had even begun working on a résumé when Holly Hearn Whaley announced that she would be retiring after 10 years at Nashville Wine Auction. Loren jumped at the opportunity and now brings her wealth of experience as a lawyer and from past leadership positions in government and the private sector to build on the nonprofit’s monumental impact in the fight against cancer in our community.
Nashville Wine Auction has raised more than $27 million dollars in the past 40-plus years and funded numerous important projects, including mammogram screenings for uninsured women in Middle Tennessee through St. Thomas’ Mobile Mammography Coach; research at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center to match cancer treatments to a patient’s tumor DNA; and granting dreams for Make-A-Wish kids. Despite two difficult years due to COVID-related cancellations, the nonprofit surprised beneficiaries with their full grant requests for 2021 and the balance of their 2020 grants, thanks to the organization’s generous supporters. This year is off to a great start, and the first fundraiser under Loren’s watch will be the 10th anniversary of Pairings, which takes place Feb. 24-26. We caught up with her — in the wine cellar, appropriately — where she quenched our thirst to hear more about the Nashville Wine Auction and some of her most memorable wine experiences.
What do you wish everyone knew about Nashville Wine Auction? We have the best time welcoming new friends, learning about and savoring great wines, and raising money for cancer-fighting charities! In its more than 40 years in existence, we’ve raised over $27 million, and we have created incredible experiences and opportunities for people to come together, learn, share and connect. I can say with authority that the events NWA puts on — with the support of our incredible hospitality community — are simply unmatched.
What is your first order of business as CEO? My 100-day sprint will include connecting with our wonderful patrons, donors, beneficiaries, chefs, vintners and volunteers and speeding into our Pairings Weekend events, which take place less than 60 days after I start. Whew!
What is your favorite wine region? Whichever one I have the pleasure of being in at the moment. While Burgundy and Champagne have my heart, I spent two weeks this fall in various regions in Italy, including the gorgeous Prosecco Hills, Trentino, Alto Adige [and] Friuli Venezia Giulia. I have never been to a wine region that I wouldn’t return to if given the chance.
What’s your favorite Nashville Wine Auction memory? It happens whenever someone wins an auction lot that they really, really, really want — the unbridled joy that lights up the whole room — like when Eleanor Cobb won a special Alabama football game lot that involved being on the sidelines. It is so fun to watch people display unrestrained happiness, and certainly, we have learned in the last couple of years how important it is to take time and do the things that make you happy.
What is your most memorable wine experience? I can’t pick just one. We were successful bidders on a wine trip to Italy that included a visit to the Gaja Winery in Barbaresco, Italy. An auction trip to Chile included a lunch at Fuegos de Apalta, which is located in the middle of the vineyards of Viña Montes in the Colchagua Valley. My most recent trip to Italy involved a trek to the fantastic Hiša Franko restaurant in Kobarid, Slovenia — a 19-course tasting menu with wine pairings, including some remarkable Slovenian wines.
What region is on your bucket list? Bordeaux. And as long as COVID doesn’t get in the way, I will be there this spring (after two reschedules). I may be the only person out there who has been to Tokaj, the Colchagua Valley, Stellenbosch, the Douro Valley and Ribera del Duero before making the trek to Bordeaux.
What’s the one thing you hope never changes in Nashville? The giving hearts of Nashvillians. How fortunate we are to be in a community that cares so much for others.
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