Beau over at Basic Juice emailed the wine blogosphere this morning with a challenge he posted to his blog a few days back:
“Take the amount of ca$h you spend on wine/vin/wein/vino over the course of 1 week, 1 month, or even 1 year and donate it to…”, the relief agency of your choice.

I have placed Beau’s banner on the right menu of the blog and encourage everyone to make a donation.

I also noticed over at the eRobertParker forum that Bob Fleming posted a generous donation matching offer of up to $5,000 of your contribution. Many others have also posted ideas to auction off parts of their wine collections to support Hurricane survivors.

It’s great to see the online wine community coming together to help others in need with the same passion we bring to our love of the grape.

In what is sure to be the first of many food and drink industry fundraisers, bars and restaurants in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Las Vegas are banding together on September 12 to aid the thousands of hospitality workers unemployed due to Hurricane Katrina. The “Save New Orleans Cocktail Hour” event from 5-7 pm will 100% benefit those bar and restaurant employees out of work in New Orleans and surrounding areas. They have also set-up a donation link for others outside of those cities to support the cause.