Help the Ahr Vintners

The Ahr has been hit this week by catastrophic flooding. Many vintners on the Ahr have been particularly hard hit, losing their cellars and stock of wine. The VDP has established a donation fund to help vintners on the Ahr:

https://www.vdp.de/de/der-adler-hilft-ahr

If you are in Europe (or can send to an account with an IBAN and BIC) and can donate directly to the VDP, please do so! Their account information is

IBAN: DE 21 51 09 15 00 00 00 20 45 28

BIC: GENODE51RGG

Note: Solidarität Ahr Weinbau

Doing so with Wise (https://wise.com) is also easy.

But for those do not want to use Wise or would prefer to pay with a credit card, I have established this GoFundMe account so that they may contribute to the fund. I will convert all donations to EUR on Friday, 13 August, and send the full sum to the VDP. This GoFundMe account will then be closed.

Many of the vintners on the Ahr are friends that I have known for years. They make spectacular wine. They need our help. Please leave them an encouraging message if you donate -- I'll translate them all to German and send them to the vintners I know best, who will them I am sure share them with others.

I will provide a full accounting of donations and the receipt for the final donation to the VDP for anyone that requests it.

If you wish to contact me, please see http://rotweinjaeger.com/about/

Here is an English translation of the VDP page:

Images can leave you stunned. Especially when they are the kind we see on the news.

We would like to express our deepest sympathy and our thoughts are with all those affected by the storm in NRW [Nordrhein-Westfalen] and RLP [Rheinland-Pfalz], especially in the Ahr Valley. The flood has hit many wineries along the Ahr hard and is affecting the entire wine world. Now that initial relief efforts are underway, marked by incredible and impressive solidarity among colleagues from all over Germany, a long-term measure of the impact on viticulture along the Ahr can slowly be estimated. Barrels have been washed away, halls and houses have collapsed, more than an entire vintage has been lost - the coming vintage must be protected, vineyards worked, often without the equipment that is now missing.

How can we help?

In order to make the processing of what has happened and the reconstruction, which involves investments, a little more carefree, we have decided to launch this appeal for donations. Together with you, we would like to create a financial aid package for viticulture in the Ahr region that will give hope and confidence to all winegrowers during this difficult time.

How does the donation work?

The donation contribution is freely selectable and can be transferred directly to the association "Der Adler hilft e.V.". All donations benefit the reconstruction of the winegrowing region Ahr.