In honor of Fair Trade Month….let’s drink some wine!
First, what’s Fair Trade and how do we know when something truly is Fair Trade?
TransFair USA is the third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. TransFair USA enables sustainable development and community empowerment by cultivating a more equitable global trade model that benefits farmers, workers, consumers, industry and the earth. For consumers who choose to make socially-conscious purchases, the Fair Trade Certified mark guarantees that farmers receive fair prices for their products and additional investment through the Fair Trade premium for social, environmental and economic development in their communities. In 2008, U.S. retail sales of Fair Trade Certified products increased 20 percent to hit an estimated $1.25 billion, and U.S. companies paid more than $10 million to build schools and hospitals, among other projects, to improve the lives of farmers around the world.
How do wines fit in? Quite naturally.
Worthwhile Wine Company is the brainchild of Founder Tom Lynch, who wants to make it easier for consumers to do what 70% of them say they want to do according to McKinsey Quarterly: buy more sustainably made products. Worthwhile Wine is a Fair Trade Certified?, triple bottom line wine import company that addresses the reasons most people say make it harder for them to buy more sustainable wines - concern about trading quality for sustainability, confusing sustainability claims, and difficulty finding as many sustainably made wines as they would like.
To accomplish this, Lynch started with great wines - a large and diverse portfolio of wines that have been recognized or recommended by credible third parties - and met Worthwhile Wine's own standards for great wine. This includes more than 20 wines recognized as "good value" or "best buy," multiple 90+ rated wines and dozens of wines that have won double gold and gold medals in international wine competitions. So [check one] consumers don't have to choose between quality and sustainability.
Worthwhile Wine makes it easier for people to wade through the confusing sustainability claims with their proprietary "Worthwhile Profile?" which provides brief, simple information about quality and sustainability in straightforward colloquial language. [check 2]
Finally, [check 3] through traditional and newer digital channels of distribution, Worthwhile Wine hopes to make it easier for consumers to find more of the wines they want.
Building on its sustainability platform, Worthwhile Wines will launch its wines as Fair Trade Certified? with TransFair USA.
Pricing for Worthwhile wines ranges from $6.99 for wines sold at supermarkets all the way up to $150 for bottles sold in high-end restaurants.
And I can vouch for them. They have some fantastic wines. I can personally speak for the Partnership Vineyards 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. Partnership Vineyards is the joint initiative of Riebeek Cellars and the people from the Riebeek Valley aiming to make and market wine in an effort to uplift the community and give everyone a sense of belonging. ”Together we planted vineyards on a specially selected piece of Africa and today we raise our glasses to standing together as a more united nation.”
How can drinking their wine not be a good thing?!
Three cheers for Fair Trade Month. Hip, hip, hooray!
Also of note: On October 27th, Worthwhile Wine is doing a virtual wine tasting with Partnership Vineyards’ Winemaker Zakkie Beste that is free and open to the public. Interested persons can join the guided tasting and submit questions at www.worthwhilewine.com/livetasting. This tasting will take place at 8 p.m. EST and again at 8 p.m. PST. Log on to learn more.
