Charity Begins with a Corkscrew

I always love a good story behind a wine and Charity Case Wines has a great one. The Charity Case Foundation, founded by a group of Napa winemakers, provides an outlet for winemakers to participate in charitable activities by doing what they do best--making wine. Vintners in the program donate excess juice to create wines bottled under the Charity Case label with all net proceeds donated to Napa county charities.

I received samples of the 2008 Charity Case Rosé Napa Valley and the 2009 Charity Case Sauvignon Blanc both from Napa Valley.

I had planned to share these wine with guests as I usually do with samples to get the opinions of others, but we ended up trying them one night after a power failure left us with few options for dinner. We improvised with what was on hand in our dark fridge and enjoyed the wines with some pretzels and hummus and olive tapenade. Both the Sauvignon Blanc and Rosé paired surprisingly well with the minimal feast of salty and sweet. In fact the Sauvignon Blanc was a perfect paring with all three items while the Rosé seemed best with the hummus.

I think making wine for a charitable cause is a great idea and Charity Case is not only charitable to the recipients of it's foundation, it's also most charitable to the palate of the wine drinker. If you would like to try some Charity Case Wine, (and you really should), you can find ordering information here.

Cheers to Charity Case and all their volunteers who support this worthy endeavor.