A Windsor winery turns October pink: $30 a bottle for cancer research
Bricoleur Vineyards doubles its Sip with Purpose donation to $10 a bottle of Isla Rose Brut Rose for October, and an anonymous wine club member adds $20 more up to $50,000, chasing a $75,000 month for the V Foundation.
WINDSOR: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a family-owned Sonoma winery is making it the most generous month in the short life of its giving campaign. Bricoleur Vineyards announced on October 1 that it is doubling its standard $5 per bottle Sip with Purpose donation to $10 a bottle of Isla Rose Brut Rose, and that an anonymous Bricoleur Wine Club member has pledged to add $20 more per bottle, up to $50,000.
Together, the winery and the member turn each bottle into a $30 gift to the V Foundation for Cancer Research, six times the winery's year-round giving. On the first 2,500 bottles, that math totals $75,000 for the foundation. Bottles sold after the match is met keep generating the doubled $10 donation, the winery said. The Isla Rose Brut Rose sells for $60 a bottle, or $51 for club members.
"When one of our club members came to us and offered to match our giving four-to-one, I was speechless," said Sarah Citron, co-founder and CEO of Bricoleur Vineyards.
A campaign that began with a diagnosis
Sip with Purpose started in 2023, after Citron, then 32, was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. Through treatment that included chemotherapy, radiation, a double mastectomy and the I-SPY 2 clinical trial, which shrank her tumor by 40 percent, she kept leading the winery and built the campaign around the V Foundation. Today she is cancer-free. The Isla Rose Brut Rose, a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend drawn largely from the Carneros region, is named for her daughter.
The campaign has donated more than $102,000 to date to organizations including the V Foundation, the American Cancer Society and Cycle for Survival. The V Foundation, founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, says an endowment covers its administrative expenses, so 100 percent of direct donations fund cancer research. The foundation says it recently passed the $500 million mark in grants awarded and has earned 14 consecutive four-star ratings from Charity Navigator.
Bricoleur Vineyards is a family-owned estate winery in Windsor, in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley. It opened its doors in May 2020 and was named one of the best new wineries in the country by USA Today in 2022. This month the estate is also dedicating the $10 entry fee for its 8th Annual Harvest Party on October 11 to cancer research.
None to date. The Tribune corrects errors promptly and transparently. Read our corrections policy.
