Healdsburg, Calif. (January 10, 2018) – Sonoma County’s Gary Farrell Winery rang in the new year by announcing that it had raised a total of $30,000 for local fire relief efforts in 2017. Three separate wildfires burned roughly 110,720 acres across Sonoma County last fall, destroying property and displacing thousands of people, prompting the winery to mount a fundraising relief effort.

When the fires broke out in October, Gary Farrell Winery contributed $5,000 to the Sonoma County Grape Growers Foundation (SCGGF) Wildfire Relief Fund and an additional $5,000 to the Redwood Credit Union North Bay Fire Relief Fund. Shortly thereafter, the winery announced that through the end of 2017 it would donate $2.00 from each bottle of wine sold via the tasting room, over the phone, or through its website to local fire relief efforts; this campaign raised an additional $20,000, which has been distributed evenly between the SCGGF Wildfire Relief Fund and the Redwood Credit Union North Bay Fire Relief Fund.

“Sonoma County has long been a tight-knit community, where residents don’t hesitate to help one another out during times of need,” said Nancy Bailey, General Manager at Gary Farrell Winery and Sonoma County resident. “As soon as we learned about the fires and the scale of the devastation taking place, we felt it was our responsibility as part of this community to help out in any way possible.”

The SCGGF Wildfire Relief Fund is a collaboration between the Sonoma County Grape Growers Foundation and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, focused on establishing a housing recovery fund for agricultural workers displaced from their homes. Funds raised for the Redwood Credit Union North Bay Fire Relief Fund benefit fire victims in all four counties affected—Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake—including first responders impacted by the fires, children and schools. To donate to the SCGGF Wildfire Relief Fund, visit www.scggf.org. To donate to the Redwood Credit Union North Bay Fire Relief Fund, visit www.redwoodcu.org/northbayfirerelief.

Gary Farrell Winery was founded in 1982 by Gary Farrell, who was a pioneer in the Russian River Valley wine region. For more than 30 years, Gary Farrell Winery has crafted small-lot artisan wines that capture the balance and stylistic elegance of some of the finest vineyard sites in the region. Farrell sold the winery in 2004, and today winemaker Theresa Heredia is nurturing Gary Farrell’s legacy of producing small lots of Burgundian-styled, varietally expressive and regionally distinctive Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  Additional information on the winery is available at www.garyfarrellwinery.com.

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