‘Tis the season for wine and cheer. So if you can do good while indulging all the better. Here are a few ideas for charity-incentivized wine gifts for the holidays.
Charity Case is my favorite charity-incentived wine project. It is the brain child of winemaking superstar Jayson Woodbridge who produces Layer Cake and Hundred Acre. The wine is produced by the Charity Case Foundation, a movement conceived collectively by winemakers from Napa Valley. All juice and fruit donated by Napa Valley wineries and growers goes into their small batch, hand made wines with all net proceeds going to non-profit organizations serving children and families in Napa County. They sell a 2008 Napa Valley Rose and a 2009 Barrel Fermented Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc both for $11.99 per bottle/$144/case + tax & shipping. Unlike other charity-focused wine prjects this isn’t a vanity project or a revenue-generating project from the new generation of winemaking legacies, but rather a real effort at philanthropy created at the hands of artisanal winemakers. How can you not love them when they put it like this: ” The Charity Case Foundation is determined to provide raised donations to those in need in the way they should be given: in their entirety.” Amen.
As mentioned in my Slow Wine Gifts Under $40 post a few weeks ago, the recycled wine bottle glass bracelet is a great gift with a conscious. Handmade in and fairly traded from Guatemala, these eco-chic bracelets ($16.95) are made from recycled wine bottles that are collected from the Guatemala city dump, hand cut, and fashioned into jewelry by young workers without any previous training. Not only does your purchase open up new opportunity for these enterprising new artisans, but as an added bonus, when you buy it through The Hunger Site, your purchase funds 25 cups of food to people in need. Also check out the recycled bottle key chain from the same artisans ($7.95). Both available at The Hunger Site.
Finally, if you can’t decide you can always check out Cellar Angels, a unique wine-philanthropy online wine site that donates 10% of sales to charity. Once each week Cellar Angels members (membership is free) receive a private email alerting them to that week’s offer. After their purchase, members are able to select from a handful of charities to direct Cellar Angels’ contributions towards.
