I'm delighted to report that Wine Relief 2013 has helped raise more than £420,000 for Red Nose Day 2013. Star performers in achieving this amount were Waitrose – bless them – and fine-wine traders Farr Vintners – ditto – who raised roughly £200,000 and £100,000 respectively. The 2011 total was just under £400,000.
Other retailers who donated between 10 and 15% of the price of selected Wine Relief wines to Comic Relief included Laithwaite's, Majestic, Virgin Wines, Naked Wines, M&S, Oddbins and Selfridges.
Rose Murray Brown MW's special Comic Relief wine tasting in Edinburgh raised more than £7,000, while our Wine Relief dinner at The Quality Chop House raised £2,000.
Since its launch in 1999, Wine Relief has raised over £4 million for Comic Relief's admirable work in the UK and Africa.
An innovation this year was Menu Relief, devised by Nick, which raised more than £100,000 via various dishes in participating restaurants in conjunction with The Great British Menu.