In this era of scams, frauds and fakes, one looks with a jaundiced eye at anyone who has a product and claims they turn a percentage of their profits over to charities.
That’s all well and good if the charities involved are not in-house, self-proclaimed charities or the CEO, and partners are not taking home a healthy salary from it. Often only an infinitesimal portion of the collected revenues are turned over to charities. Phooey.
With all of that said, along comes some guys in the winemaking business, making a wine called 100 Percent Wine that claim, even on the bottle, to be turning 100 percent of their profits over to charities - a noble endeavor, if true.
We met with the producers of 100 Percent Wine and interrogated them with the same intensity as would the Russian KGB of old (sans rubber hoses and cattle prods) and found everything they said was true.
Scott Monette, founder and CEO of 100 Percent Wine, is a throw-back to the executives of the early 1940s when, during World War II, many patriotic CEOs opted to help the war effort by taking a salary of only $1 a year for their government work. That is exactly what Monette’s salary is, with no added perks, bonuses or stock options. Anything he earns goes right to the charities they support. It must be understood there are expenses involved in this endeavor, but the winery employs as many cost-cutting techniques that it can.
Monette is not randomly choosing charities to support; he set his sights in a specific direction. The idea behind 100 Percent Wine’s charitable awards is to give assistance to organizations that train and find permanent employment for the handicapped. While this is a noble aspiration, there is much more to the choice of recipients. Monette’s idea is to support organizations that train handicapped workers so they can earn a decent salary and can do so for the rest of their lives with dignity, thus removing them from the public assistance roles and creating self-sufficient, tax-paying Americans. It’s a policy we happily support.
100 Percent 2012 Red Blend ($15) Blending has become the vogue in California in an effort to produce wines to accompany our vast selection of modern foods. This creative blend comprises cabernet savignon, petite verdot (not often found in cabernet blends), malbec and another newcomer, teroldego.
What results is a wine with all of the charm and flavor of a fine cab and the addition of a host of bright, shimmering flavors dancing in the background and ending in an explosive, berry-ladened finish.
Get this wine for its charitable view, its 21st century blending or because you like great wines at great prices.
100 Percent 2012 California Sauvignon Blanc ($15)This is an easy drinking wine, typical of a better California sauvignon blanc, but it has its own particular twist.
The aroma stresses lemongrass, citrus zest and pineapple, while the flavor reprises the aroma with the addition of lemon rind and tropical fruits. There also is a bit of sweetness, which is derived solely from the grape clone used to make this wine. It raises the wine from the ordinary to the position of a memorable sipping wine.
The 100 Percent 2012 White Blend Sauvignon Blanc can accompany shellfish and other lightly prepared seafood dishes, but also it is a wine to serve with fresh fruit salads, with or without mild cheese, and pasta dishes with light white sauces.
Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and manages ArticlesOnWine.com. He can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.
