Wine community rallies to help Haiti

The international wine community has been working together to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake tragedy.

Wine experts Jancis Robinson MW, Matthew Jukes and Gary Vaynerchuk have been active in using social media to promote the Wines for Haiti fund-raising project, started by US wine network, Palate Press.

The campaign has drawn in support from social networking sites across the globe to encourage people to donate something special from their cellar to be auctioned online.

The Wines for Haiti auction has raised over $30,000 to date.

Australian social networking site Booze Monkey is hoping to raise $100,000 by asking for wine donations.

Booze Monkey CEO Marc Jardine said: ‘I don’t care if it’s a bottle of Blue Nun or a case of Grange, if you can spare some wine to help save a life, we want to hear from you.’

Dale Williams, founder of the website Wine Lovers Discussion Group has also become involved, offering his collection of fine Bordeaux as prizes in a wine raffle, including a 1979 Domaine de Chevalier.

In the UK, David Gleave of Liberty Wines and Tim Atkin MW are planning a wine industry fundraising event, which will involve holding 50 dinners in 50 different restaurants on a single day in April.

Further initiatives include a dedicated Oxfam appeal asking wine lovers to substitute buying their favourite bottles for donating money to the appeal.

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Written by James Lawrence