California winemakers need your help.
Northern California wine country is reeling from the combined effects of the COVID pandemic and the historic wild fires raging thorough their vineyards, neighborhoods, and communities. Some of these small family owned and operated wineriesmay not even be able to make wine from the 2020 harvest.
This isn’t just “rich people” sitting back and collecting on fire insurance. These are working class winemakers that have invested all of their savings into their passion for making great wines. A missed harvest is devastating for the them, their families, the vineyard workers, the cellar staff, the other small businesses that support them, and the list goes on. There are wineries that won’t survive this combination of catastrophes.
Donate directly:
Here are some charities that are supporting those affected:
Napa Valley Community Foundation
North Valley Community Foundation
Community Foundation of Mendocino County
Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit leadership
There are many more and I encourage you to share links to the organizations that you feel are best at getting relief to those that need it. If you have an specific ones, email us and we will add it to this list.
What winelovers from the USVI can do.
You can buy wine directly from these small winemakers. Instead of buying wine from some corporate conglomerate that makes wine all over the world, support the small, family operated winemakers that are literally picking the grapes, making the wine, designing the wine labels, packing your wine into the shipping boxes, and every step in between.
Buying wine direct also means that you are putting your dollars directly into the hands of the winemakers. If you’re buying a bottle of wine in a store, that purchase is mostly benefiting the retailer and the distributor that put it there. Only a tiny fraction gets back to the winemakers and anything you’re buying in a store today has been bought by a distributor long, long ago so none of that is actually getting to the winemakers NOW, when they need it.
What Caribbean Wine Club can do.
We can get that wine directly from the wineries and bring it down to the USVI and now through 9/12/2020 we are going to be offering a special rate of $100/case (12x750ml). Orders must be placed directly with the wineries. Please make sure the shipping address appears as “Jane Doe C/O Caribbean Wine Club” and advise them that we will be making arrangements to pick up your wine.