Good food, good wine, and great friends is the toast of the season.

This is the time to pause and  reflect on all of the many things in our lives we are thankful for.  It’s also the time when we put forth that extra effort to give back to our friends, our family, and our community.

In our first year, First Crush has a lot to be thankful for:  a successful first year, the wonderful relationships we’ve built with customers and our winemaking community, and all of the fun we had doing it.  But we are especially thankful for the opportunities we had in 2009 to help raise thousands of dollars for charitable causes by donating our harvest winemaking experience packages to charitable auctions.

In April, we donated a harvest weekend package to the Central Coast Vineyard Team’s Earth Day Food & Wine silent auction, which helped raise funds to support sustainable agriculture research, and its youth outreach programs.  In May, First Crush participated in the first annual Wine Fest weekend silent auction event by donating one of our all-inclusive harvest weekend winemaking packages.  In August, members of our First Crush team journeyed south to the Orange County wine classic, where our auction package helped raise funds for students participating in Enology and Culinary Arts programs.

First Crush also helped raised money in parts of the U.S.  In October, we were thrilled to learn from one of our Zinfandel Harvest Weekend winemakers, Pat Pappas, that our package we donated to the Regions Hospital Foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota helped raise $4,4000 for their state of the art pediatric trauma center from a premium lot, live auction item.

Along with an exclusive weekend winemaking package for two, First Crush asked our harvest winemaker dinner hosts to donate bottles of wine for the 1,000+ bottle wine auction. The featured wineries included Sharp’s Hill, Mithcella , Pomar Junction and Silver Stone wineries.  LaBellasera Hotel & Suites added three nights’ lodging and the SunAir donated roundtrip airfare.  Pappas, who’s on the hospital board said that she, the hospital, and the winners were all thrilled with the donation.

The Regions Pediatric Trauma Center is the first of its kind in the northern Midwest that has received the “Level I” designation. The Trauma Center is capable of offering immediate, specialized care to injured children 24-hours a day.

First Crush is honored to have been a part of these fantastic events, and grateful to have had the opportunity to do our part to help raise money for these wonderful organizations.  We are fortunate to be located in a community that actively supports and offers help to those in need, and  look forward to continuing to help do our part throughout the holiday season, and into the new year.