Friday, March 17th
5:30pm & 6:30pm
At Vintage Berkeley on Vine Street
5+ wines
$15 ($5 for club members!)
Ticket sales + 15% of wine sales will be donated to Rogue Vine for wildfire relief & replanting efforts.
The Rogue Vine project was started by two friends, Justin and Leonardo, who found forgotten old bush vines almost falling out of steep granitic hills in the Itata Valley, and went about restoring them to their original rustic glory, creating a small winery and crafting wines to reflect the uniqueness of the Itata Hills: freshness, natural acidity.
Their wines are some of the best expressions of Chilean terroir we have ever tasted, we connected with these wines from day one, and we were heartbroken to hear that they lost all of their old (pre-phylloxera!!) vines to the
wildfires that recently swept through Chile's central and southern wine regions.
Mass implementation of Eucalyptus and Pine trees in this region (fueled by industrial and government interests) only helped to spread the fires that swept through the valley and destroyed old vines.
Seeing the parallels between our struggles here in California combatting and working towards the future of climate change, we felt uniquely compelled to do something to help our
favorite winemaking neighbors to the south. So, we decided to throw a fundraiser to support them!
This region is full of deep rooted history - the first vineyards in the Itata Valley were planted in the 1500's, when vigneronnes had to travel through undiscovered terrain by horse caravans deep into the desert in search of dryland conditions, where vines could thrive for 60-100-120 years without any irrigation.
Over 500 years later, despite challenges from climate change and big business, the spirit of this vigneronne still lives on, through winemakers like Rogue Vine, who remain loyal to what they grew up with: the vineyard and the respect for the Terroir.
Let's help raise some funds for Justin and Leo to replant their vineyards, in the hopes that some lucky future soul 100 years from now will be drinking old-vine-bush-wine from these granitic hills in the Itata Valley again!
