Blenheim Vineyards is encouraging everyone to raise a glass to our first responders…literally.
In a collaboration between the vineyard and renowned chef José Andrés’ international nonprofit World Central Kitchen, Blenheim’s On the Line wines are helping raise money to provide healthy meals for those still fighting the pandemic.
Dave Matthews, musician, philanthropist, and owner of Blenheim Vineyards, connected with Andrés last year, when World Central Kitchen was helping gear up a Charlottesville chapter of Frontline Foods. The effort was designed to support local restaurants and food producers by purchasing meals to distribute to health care workers and other first responders in the area.
Blenheim had the wines, WCK had the boots on the ground, and Matthews had the idea: produce and market wines aimed at raising money and support for those on the COVID front lines.
Blenheim’s winemakers created a red blend and a white blend; Matthews designed the label; and the wine was sold either direct to consumers at the vineyard or on the Blenheim website, with a portion of the proceeds funding World Central Kitchen and Frontline Foods. Blenheim was able to re-open its tasting room in July 2020, which helped spur sales.
“Response has been great,” according to Sales, Marketing, and Events Manager Tracey Love. She says the 2019 vintage—347 cases of white and 329 cases of red—sold out completely; for the 2020 vintage, the vineyard has bottled more than 500 cases of each blend. With additional distribution through retailers and restaurants in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and New York City, so far On the Line has raised close to $75,000, helping World Central Kitchen provide meals for first responders and others in need. (Frontline Foods was merged into World Central Kitchen in August 2020.)
The On the Line blends were created specifically for this fundraising effort, and designed to be “a refreshing, easy-drinking wine,” says Love—and affordable, at $20 a bottle. The red is 63 percent cabernet franc blended with merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and petit verdot (“with notes of crushed raspberry, tobacco, and baked plum,” according to the website). The white—64 percent sauvignon blanc with rkatsiteli, chardonnay, petit manseng, and viognier—is fermented and aged in stainless steel.
Buy a bottle (or a quartet, or a case) and toast the masked health care worker on the label. Heck, you can even get the T-shirt—it’s for a good cause.