Wine, Charity, and Thanksgiving

Last month’s Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla coincided with a charitable event called the Walla Walla Wine Walk Weekend, and it got me thinking again about the role that wineries play in charity and gratitude. I enjoyed all of the sessions at the WBC (now renamed the Wine Media Conference), but decided to a bit of a different tack and check out the charity auction event instead of the Friday evening WBC winery dinners. (Plus they had dancing!) My wife and I helped kick off the weekend’s festivities, which ended up raising over $40,000 for the Walla Walla Alliance for Homelessness. On Saturday wine blogger conference participants were joined by over 300 people at tasting rooms around downtown, sampling wines from 17 participating wineries all donating to the cause. But Walla Walla wineries aren’t unique in their generosity; with their participation and others across Washington State, this year’s Auction of Washington Wines in August raised more than $4 million to benefit Seattle Children’s Hospital uncompensated care fund. Across the country, wineries’ support of charitable causes is disproportionately large.

Desert Wind winery, for example (whose wines we enjoyed at the Saturday dinner) has a history of charitable giving with the beneficiary selected each year by their employees. A favorite of mine comes from Ashley Trout of Flying Trout wines, part of TERO Estates. She formed a separate winery called Vital Wines, whose profits go entirely to the SOS Clinic, a free, non-profit health care clinic in Walla Walla. If you’re looking for a perfect Thanksgiving season gift, try a bottle of Gratitude Cabernet.

I’ve been around the charity wine auction scene in Washington State for a while now, and continue to be impressed by the level of participation of wineries big and small. Almost every winery’s website has a page for donation requests; I am hard pressed to think of another business category with a similarly ingrained philosophy. So cheers to all this Thanksgiving, and a special thank you to the wineries that enrich our communities and our lives.