October 28, 2024 – Pinot for the People is a month-long campaign aimed at broadening access to high-quality wine and supporting the essential work of nonprofits. For the month of November, Left Coast will redirect profits from its flagship wine, Cali’s Cuvee, and reinvest it back into wine drinkers (with a 33% discount on bottle sales) as well as a $5 donation per bottle to one of three nonprofits. Across the country, inflation has stressed consumers’ wallets, the wine and hospitality industries have seen shrinking revenues, while consolidation and rising costs make it increasingly difficult for small businesses to compete with larger corporate brands. “We know that our wine is part of a rarified world,” says Creative Director and Family Ownership, Cali Pfaff. “But we also believe wholeheartedly that wine brings people together. We decided as a family to forgo profits for this effort so that we could share our wine more broadly. We hope, in a small and modest way, that our wine will make someone’s day.”
“We are a second-generation, family-run business and that gives us certain freedoms in decision-making,” says CEO and Family Ownership, Taylor Pfaff. “We realized that in challenging times, people need help and want to help others. To this end we decided to donate the proceeds after our production costs were covered in an effort to support our community more.” The family selected three nonprofits to support through the effort: Salud, a local healthcare nonprofit for vineyard workers, Project: Camp, a disaster relief organization that provides pop-up childcare while families rebuild, and the Institute for Applied Ecology, a Corvallis-based nonprofit for native species conservation.
The nonprofit partners align closely with Left Coast’s mission and values, including environmental conservation, an atmosphere of welcoming and inclusion, and dignity and living wages for agricultural workers. Customers are free to choose which of the nonprofits their proceeds support. The name, Pinot for the People, represents a desire to shake off the pretentiousness and exclusivity often associated with high-quality Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley. “We are farmers at our core,” says Taylor. “Our greatest pride as business owners is to be able to support our community and share the fruits of our harvest.” Left Coast is selling their 2022 Cali’s Cuvée (91 pts from Wine Enthusiast) for $20 and donating $5 from the sale of each bottle. The Pinot for the People promotion is only available online through the company’s website, leftcoastwine.com. “We are so grateful to the restaurants, sommeliers, retailers, distributors, consumers, and wine club members that have supported us over the past 21 years,” says matriarch and Founder, Suzanne Larson Pfaff. “In the winemaking industry, it truly takes a village and we would not be where we are without the community around us. This is our way of saying thank you.”
- 33% discount available to everyone on Left Coast’s signature Pinot Noir to support nonprofits and expand access to premium wines.
- Highly-rated (91 pts from Wine Enthusiast) and $5 from every bottle sold donated to charity.
- Small-town America, family-run business paying it forward with transparent payment structure.
- Nonprofits support health care for seasonal vineyard workers, disaster relief providing childcare while families rebuild and ecological conservation, restoration and research to preserve a brighter future for all.
About Left Coast
Left Coast Estate is a sustainability focused and family-run vineyard, winery and working farm. We are guided by two defining principles: a passion for making world-class wine and a deep connection to the land where we live and farm. Each bottle is crafted to represent the unique terroir of our 490-acre estate. Our location in the Van Duzer Corridor sub AVA makes us one of the coldest grape-growing sites in the Willamette Valley. Strong diurnal shifts allow us to produce cool climate, aromatic, elegant wines. Our focus on terroir aligns with sustainable farming practices to preserve the integrity of our land for future generations. Our vineyards and winery are certified sustainable through LIVE and we won their 2024 Award for Excellence in Sustainability. LIVE is an independent, third-party certification that looks at all of the inputs into the land across the entire estate to ensure that they are in line with the latest university research and internationally accredited standards. We maintain over 200 acres of ecological compensation areas, of which over 100 acres are old-growth white oak forests. Our oldest oaks are over 400 years old and are the most threatened habitat in the Willamette Valley. We’ve partnered with the US Department of Fish & Wildlife to restore these forests by removing invasive species and bringing them under long-term care and conservation. Our visitors and guests have enjoyed the transformation of the Estate as USA Today voted us as Oregon’s Top Tasting Room of 2017, we were voted top 100 Best fan-favorite destinations in Oregon 2019 and Wine Press Northwest’s 2020 Oregon Winery of the Year. Our wines have a consistent track record of critical acclaim and provide some of the best value in the Willamette Valley.
