Tasting rooms will take canned food donation in exchange for wine
tasting
Tasting rooms across town have joined together for the first annual ‘Wine Walk Healdsburg’ that will raise money for local food pantries.
Over 35 wineries within walking distance of each other in downtown Healdsburg are launching a month-long campaign beginning November 16 that will exchange wine tastings for canned goods earmarked for the Redwood Empire Food Bank.
“About a year and a half ago we started realizing that we could do more together and so we started meeting regularly, on a monthly basis, and we started to do some collective events,” said Carla Jeffries, Director of Business Operations at Thumbprint Cellars and Chair of the Board of the Wine Walk Healdsburg Alliance.
“We talked about how we could work together as more of a concierge style experience for our guests that come to Healdsburg and we hit upon the fact that we also need to do something for our community and we wanted to support a local charity,” she said.
The wine walk will begin collecting canned food donations on November 16 with an opening day chili cook-off event. Donations will be collected through December 18.
“We wanted to do something through the holidays and donate our tastings, if you bring a can of food to any of the participating tasting rooms, you will receive a free tasting, one can of food per person,” Jeffries said.
On November 16, Wine Walk Healdsburg will kick off with ‘Cooking for Cans,’ a chili cook-off competition at more than 15 tasting rooms. For that day only, canned food donations will buy your way into tastings at all of the participating wineries including tasting and voting for your favorite chili.
“To make it fast, interactive and immediate, we are asking for people to vote for their favorite chili through Wine Walk Healdsburg’s Facebook page or Twitter,” she said.
Wine Walk Healdsburg’s Food Drive and Chili Cook-Off event is Saturday, November 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Canned food donations can be brought into participating wineries in exchange for a day of wine tasting and chili tasting. One can donation per person is required. Donations in exchange for tastings at individual wineries thereafter will be accepted until December 18.
“Each winery will be doing their own spin on this, so some wineries will be donating a portion of the sales, some donated any tasting fees collected, some wineries will be offering promotions and some will be having entertainment, such as ourselves,” Jeffries said.
For more information and a list of participating wineries, visit www.winewalkhealdsburg.com.
