Those of you who attended our Recession Busters wine-tasting last month in Cork will remember a good friend of ours, Lesley Atkins, who presented 13 stupidly good value wines on the night. Well, Lesley’s taken another of her passions to the extreme by undertaking a stupidly long bike ride in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust – the 300km Vatternrundan!

The Vatternrundan is a cycling event on the road around a lake in Sweden. It’s so big you can see it on the weather map on the TV and apparently even from space.

Cystic Fibrosis is Ireland and the UK’s most common life-threatening inherited disease, with one person in 19 a carrier of the gene. It affects the internal organs, especially the lungs and digestive system, making it difficult to breathe and digest food. The Cystic Fibrosis Trust is a UK-based charity whose work and research has positive implications for CF sufferers in Ireland and around the world.

We’re supporting Lesley and the Trust by offering €110 worth of wine for a prize draw – all that we’re asking is that you donate at least £5 (less than €6!) to Lesley and Will’s fund then pop a comment back to us here saying “I donated!”. Donations of more than £10 will get a double-entry into the draw. Lesley’s hoping to raise £3,000 for the charity and she’s over half way there already, so hopefully we can all help get her across the line before she starts her marathon cycle.

Everyone who donates from Ireland will be entered in the draw for the case of wine on the 24th of June, so PLEASE DONATE – come on, a case of wine for a fiver!

Our congratulations to Karen Wilkins, from Llanion rowing club in Wales, who won a fine mixed case of wine from ourselves. Mike joined Siubhan McDevitt from Oceantocity in Meitheal Mara to draw out the lucky entrant. Karen will have something to help take away the pain of the race.

The Ocean to City race takes place on the June bank holiday weekend, Saturday 30th May, in Cork harbour. The race, now in its fifth year, starts in Crosshaven before proceeding out to Roches point where the rowers turn and race for the city via Cobh, Monkstown and to the finish line at Lapps Quay in the heart of Cork city.

The weather forecast is looking good for the weekend. I hope I don’t jinx it by saying “bring sunblock!”. Over 100 boats have entered (with about 350 crew), including entries from the USA, Germany, Wales and across Ireland.

Hopefully see you there, and good luck to all those taking part…

For details on how you can get Curious Wines to help out at your next fundraising event, click here.

Sadly, no, we’re not offering you the opportunity to invest in Curious Wines. What we are doing, however, is offering you a great raffle prize for your next fundraiser.

What’s In It For You:

• Free prize! For your raffle! What’s not to love?
• Wine or vouchers, whichever works best for you.
• Raffle tickets to give to your guests.

What’s In It For Us:

We’ll be totally transparent about the fact that this is a marketing initiative that supports good causes. Every raffle ticket supplied is a raffle ticket on one side and a business card on the other. You get to put a raffle ticket into as many willing hands as you fancy, and we get to put a business card into the sweaty clutches of potential customers.

It is, as they say, a win/win proposition.

What’s the Catch?

There is none. Provided you’re promoting a good cause and the work you do is for Irish charities or community initiatives, we’ll be proud to help.

So What Do We Do Now?

Drop us a line at curious@curiouswines.ie! Tell us what you do and when your next fundraiser is, attach your contact details, and we’ll get in touch to see what we can do in support.