Menu for Hope is a charity fundraiser supported by food and wine bloggers worldwide. It was started by Pim Techamuanvivit who blogs at Chez Pim and is now in its 5th year. Last year Menu for Hope raised over $90,000 for a school lunch program in Lesotho. Find out more about the Menu for Hope at Chez Pim.

To help the cause, all you need to do is buy a $10 raffle ticket at First Giving - Menu for Hope and enter the prize code for prize you would like to win. The raffle runs between now and Christmas - please see below for more detailed instructions.

Here’s the prize we’ve donated (that you can bid on - hint, hint):

Giant Wine Map of California

California is the second in our series of wine maps. The regular retail size of this map is 24 x 36 inches, however, this one will be custom printed at a giant 4 feet wide by 6 feet tall. We’re finishing the artwork right now, so be the first on your block (actually on the entire planet) to have a Giant Wine Map of California. To get a better idea of the style and quality, please take a look at our map of the Iberian Peninsula. The map of California will be just as obsessively accurate, up to date and - all importantly - suitable for framing (if you can find a frame that large). This item can only be delivered to US addresses. Estimated Value: $400. Prize Code:WB12

You can see more wine-related prizes at Vinography

or the complete list of prizes at Chez Pim

It’s a tough year financially for so many people - especially the very poor - so if you can give please do.

First Giving - Menu for Hope

Donation Instructions:
1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at http://chezpim.com
2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.
3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Ten years ago. . .
Man walks in to a wine shop and asks for a wine to go with a certain dish.
The clerk replies: “German Riesling”.
Man walks out of wine shop.
Wait, where’s the punch line? The badum-bump? There’s none of that because it’s not a joke. Times were really that hard for [...]

When Diesel - the ultra trendy purveyor of $300 (₤160) jeans - decided to get into the wine business this year with equally expensive wines, they got the grape varieties all wrong. Sorry but Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir simply aren’t the vinous equivalent of denim. That honor would go to [...]

This article appearded in the June/July 2006 edition of Connections Magazine (Ireland)
Well priced, massively fruit-forward, quaffable Australian wines seem fairly ubiquitous these days, and why not? Who hasn’t picked up a bottle of Jacob’s Creek, Rosemount, Hardy’s, Banrock Station or [yellowtail] lately? They’re the cheap, cheerful, user friendly wines that rescued us all [...]

Last month, faster than Boris Yeltsin could say tough shitzki y’all, the Russian government pulled the plug on Georgian wine, banning all imports. Since Georgia exports 89% of its wine to Russia, it’s been devastating to the Georgian wine industry.
The ban continues and has generated a good deal of press but they’re [...]

If you’ve caught the wine bug hard, the need to purchase a Laguiole corkscrew may have set in. You may already own one. Simply put, they’re the most elegant (and expensive) way to open a bottle of wine. And now that the reality-based wine community is clamoring for the end of cork in [...]

Last week I talked about why it’s a good idea to take wine notes. This week we’ll go through the tasting note for one wine together. To do this properly, you’ll need the following materials:

1 bottle 2003 M. Chapoutier Belleruche Rouge Côtes du Rhône. Its label, like all Chapoutier labels are in [...]

If you’re interested in getting better treatment in a restaurant or tasting room, I know of one sure way: take notes. Faster than you can say “expert in the house,” the staff will be falling all over you, indulging your every whim. OK, I’m exaggerating. The real reason to take notes [...]

Note: the bulk of this article is an accompanying chart that compares the major scoring systems now used, from 3 stars to 100 point scales (see it online here).
If you watched the movie Mondovino, you may have come away with the impression that the 100 point rating wine rating system is the root of all [...]

Congratulations to Tyler Colman, AKA Dr. Vino who has just hit the 100 mark and is now a member of the Wine Century Club. For those of you not familiar with Dr. Colman, he’s a real PhD who teaches wine and politics at NYU and the University of Chicago. He’s also the author [...]

It’s a funny coincidence to have a Sauvignon Blanc tasting just when a mainstream wine writer is completely trashing the grape: “For years, this offensively inoffensive grape has escaped criticism while Chardonnay and Merlot have been scorned. The free ride ends here” rants Slate’s Mike Steinberger. It sounds like a joke but he keeps up [...]