Virtual Tasting for Charity - Empty My Wallet, Help Me Support Laura's House (11/19 - 11/28)

I’m not sure how many years I have done this but I think this might be Year 7? Each year, as part of a broader end of year charity effort here on the Board, I typically kick off the series and do the first week. Like all the other years, I will do Pinot Noir (from anywhere, still and bubbly). But before I get to the ‘how’ below, just a couple of comments.

Like last November when we did this during the pandemic, we’re still finding our way through COVID. Since last year, we’ve had a lot going on around us–political, social and medical challenges. These factors have been very difficult for many. Given all this, I still want to remain positive, to lead and work to raise some money for my charity Laura’s House. The charity is about ending domestic violence, through emergency shelter services, counseling, transitional housing and community outreach. To learn more, you can click the following:

How do you participate? You open and post as many Pinot Noir tasting notes as you like, and I will pay $5 for every Pinot Noir TN that is posted here during the time period of 11/19 to 11/28. To go further, I will double the payment to $10 per TN if you post a photo of yourself with the wine. And, as an added bonus, my matching Wine Berserker donor that has supported me for so many years is locked again. So, the final amount raised will be matched, essentially doubling the value of every note posted. At the end of the period, I will count the notes and make a donation to Laura’s House.

Final comment. I’m looking for people to join in my donation, up to matching mine (which is usually around $1,000). Last year, we had my match donor, along with some of you matching on your own tasting notes. All of that is great and it all helps but I really want to give Laura’s house a hand this year so if you are able, and you feel a connection to the topic of defeating domestic violence and protecting those that are fleeing it, consider matching my donation at the end. I know there are people around here that do very well, and spend a lot o $$$ on this hobby. Consider please diverting a small portion of that hobby and match me, either publicly here or anonymously.

Here is last year’s thread. Have a look. Virtual Tasting for Charity - Empty My Wallet, Help Me Support Laura's House (11/20 - 11/29) - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

Post your TN’s here starting on Friday, November 19th (no bottles prior to the 19th, please).

Thank you, god bless everyone here who participates and happy holidays.

Vincent incoming.
Goodfellow incoming.
Envoyer incoming.
And I do have quite a bit of Burg already…

Lots of new 1er Crus at Trader Joe’s. These reviews can actually be helpful; don’t have to kiss as many frogs.

I promise you I’ll post a TJ wine!

Favorite part of the year.

I’ll get the compendium for the entire Virtual Tasting Series posted next week.

Bravo, Frank.

I find the aging of domestic pinots, for better or worse or just different, to be quite interesting, so I’ll layer on the same donation ($5/$10) as Frank for any domestic pinot 10 years or older (2011 vintage on back). Dig those out and give us a note and a photo.

Counselor, thank you for signing on to help $$ match on the notes, and to encourage some older bottles to be shared. I appreciate your advocacy through your wallet for the work Laura’s House is doing.

I want to ask again for matching donors, and you’re welcome to match as Counselor did in any way that you like. If you have been impacted by domestic violence, or someone you knew fled a situation or worse stayed in one, then I would encourage you to help here.

Thank you everyone.

This is so very generous of you all. The last year has been a challenging one to say the least for our clients. For them being isolated with their family was one of the worst things that could happen because it meant they were with their abusive partner and nobody would know what was going on behind closed doors. The anxiety, financial uncertainty, kids being home and needing attention with school work etc made for a very stressful and potentially dangerous time and we saw mental health issues, threats of suicide and desperation rise sharply.
Fortunately we were able to assist our clients remotely and help them plan ways to survive this unprecedented time. We are now busier than ever and your generous donations will allow us to do even more for those who need our services.
Thank you all for the support you give us. We appreciate it more than you could know. Frank- you are one of our guardian angels!

Margaret, thank you.

Folks, I asked Margaret to post so that you could get an authentic and first person POV about the charity. She is the Laura’s House Exec Director/CEO, and the charity has been the recipient of every tasting week challenge I have done, as well as the decade plus of Falltacular. So many of you have supported one (or both) of these efforts, many of you multiple times. We have raised a lot of money for Laura’s House and we will do that again starting late next week.

I look forward to many of you posting TNs here, and the onboarding of any additional ‘matching’ donors (to whatever level you want. Hell, it could be 50 cents per tasting note). Just help how you can.

Frank, it is great of you to champion this cause year after year. I might have a few bottles of Pinot laying around. I’ll donate $10 for every TN I post.

I’ve heard the testimonials from women at Falltacular about the violence and terror they, and often their children, experienced, and the way Laura’s House provided them a path out of that. It’s incredibly powerful what they do.

I created the compendium for all the WB 2012 Virtual Tasting Series which this is the first.

Slots are open if you would like to host a week for the charity of your choice.

Click here to see what’s coming

Chris and Chris (sounds like a sports talk radio show), thank you for the comments and matching support.

In terms of the matching aspect of this, I’m keeping the mechanics simple. All you need to do is declare your match with a post here–whatever amount you want, whether it is per your own notes or something more broad like Counselor Seiber did, up to a full match on all notes as my anonymous donor is doing. Then, at the end of the challenge, you just go into the Laura’s House website and make the donation online with a credit card, or you can send them a personal check. The money does not go to me. And, I just ask that you mention in your donation to them that you were part of the Wine Berserkers challenge. This way, I can figure out how well we did in total.

Just want to add that Laura’s House is a tremendously worthwhile cause and Frank’s annual drive is one of the really fine things about this online community. I hope everyone considers a generous donation!

Hey Frank,

I’m curious why you choose Pinot Noir each year. Any particular story there? Knowing you are a Champagne guy, does it need to be full Blanc de Noirs or is a blend acceptable?

LOL

Starting this week! Pinot on deck.

Hey Chris. I used to drink a lot of Pinot Noir a decade ago so I figured the challenge would come through what I knew and so each year I have just kept it going. A lot of Pinot is consumed by the Board here so that helps me to raise a lot more money if I pick the popular kid, so to speak.

As for Champagne, it needs to be a 100% Blanc de Noir to count. There is plenty of BdN Pinot Noir out there if someone wants to open that kind of wine. I will be doing both Pinot Noir and BdN for my own notes, too.

Brig is correct, we start this Friday so start opening bottles and posting notes at that time to count for the challenge–all the details are back in Post #1. And I still encourage and hope to have additional donor matching, at what ever level you like. Typically people will jump in with matches after the challenge has begun but you can certainly pledge that now.

Thank you everyone.

Heck, I may even have to post a note about my first ever pinots

Seriously Frank, this is tremendously generous of you. You continue to lead by example and we are all honored by your humbleness, generosity and commitment.

Cheers

Can this be a temporary sticky?

Tom, I want to just leave it as normal. It will get plenty of activity during the challenge period and the thread will stay active. Notes will start hitting on Friday. I’ll get it kicked off with an acidic, flavor-less and shrill BdN from the Champagne region, I think.

BdB?