Vintage Wine Estates supports fight against breast cancer; wine country fire relief

Purple Cowboy wines were created by Vintage Wine Estates Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Terry Wheatley who also co-created the Tough Enough To Wear Pink campaign in 2004. The mission was to give back to a cause and a community with whom she had deep personal ties. In addition to being one of the industry's top wine executives, Ms. Wheatley comes from a ranching family and is wife and mother to former champion professional rodeo cowboys. She is also a breast cancer survivor. With the help of rodeos around the country, Purple Cowboy wines and other committed sponsors, Tough Enough To Wear Pink, now in its 13^th year, has raised $27 million.

"October at Vintage Wine Estates was all about giving to fight breast cancer. Until this October brought another crisis—the devastating Northern California wildfires," explained Wheatley.

Lives were lost, thousands of homes and properties were destroyed. None of Vintage Wine Estates' wineries in the Napa, Sonoma or Mendocino fire zones, including Clos Pegase, Swanson, Delectus, Cosentino, Girard, Viansa, B.R. Cohn or the Ray's Station Hopland production facility were damaged. Sadly, many Vintage Wine Estates employees, and those of its neighbor wineries and vendors—even first responders— lost their homes.

Along with Jessica Kogan, co-founder of Cameron Hughes wines and Chief Digital Officer of Vintage Wine Estates, Wheatley quickly established a GoFundMe campaign, called Heart of the Vine, to put gift cards for basic necessities right into the hands of those in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino who have lost their homes or experienced long-term displacement. The GoFundMe campaign, which was publicized on the wineries' social media channels and mailing lists, has raised over $130,000 to date, and is being distributed on an ongoing basis, first to winery employees, then to other winery friends, neighbors and first responders who have experienced fire loss. Thanks to the generous support of partners such as the HEB supermarket chain in Texas, the GoFundMe campaign will move to a 501(3)c status shortly to fund continuing needs during the long recovery. The combined funds raised for the Heart of the Vine 501(3)c is over $285,000.  Those who are interested in donating to Heart of The Vine can visit the campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/vweheartofthevine through November, 2017.

About Vintage Wine Estates

Vintage Wine Estates is a privately held wine company headquartered in Santa Rosa, California and owned by a group of vintner families with deep roots in the wine business.  The families own a collection of winery estates and brands including Clos Pegase Winery, Cosentino Winery, Girard Winery, B.R. Cohn Winery, Swanson Vineyards, Viansa Sonoma, Sonoma Coast Vineyards, Firesteed Vineyards, Cameron Hughes, Windsor Vineyards, Cartlidge & Browne, Middle Sister, Tall Dark Stranger, Pro-mis-Q-ous, Monogamy, Girl & Dragon, Purple Cowboy and a number of exclusive wine brands. Vintage Wine Estates is a majority partner in Splinter Group Spirits, producing craft Kentucky whiskey (Straight Edge) and American whiskey (Slaughter House) and markets Clayhouse, Buried Cane and Goughenheim wines of Argentina. An industry leader across all sales channels and dedicated to providing wine consumers with a range of wines from $10 to $100 dollars, Vintage Wine Estates produces outstanding wines from Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and other premium California and Oregon winegrowing regions and respects the way people buy their wine—at wineries, at retail, on the telephone, on television, on the web and by mail.
www.vintagewineestates.com

CONTACT: Mary Ann Vangrin, [email protected]

SOURCE Vintage Wine Estates

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