Okay, the ballots are in and the overwhelming consensus is that we should hold a wine auction with the proceeds going to the disaster relief effort in Haiti.

The auction will go live on Monday 25th January.

And our target is $100,000

No, you didn't hear me wrong, I said a hundred thousand.

The charities who will receive the money are trusted names who we know can deliver aid rapidly and effectively: the Red Cross, World Vision and Oxfam. Any other suggestions are welcome.

The most important thing right now is to get the wheels in motion and get the donations coming in.

I had conversations with some winemakers over the weekend (sorry to call you when you should be spending time with your families guys, but it is all in the good cause) and they are very keen to help of course.

Now we need your commitment.

So we are asking you DIRECTLY to register your support.

PLEASE LEAVE THE DETAILS OF YOUR DONATION IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW :: YOU WILL NEED TO LOG IN FIRST.

If you can spare some wine for the auction -- however much or little -- then we would like you to leave your name and details below. Please tell us what you can donate with a rough idea of how much it is worth. Five dollars or five hundred -- it's not about who's is the biggest (my wife reliably informs me), but if we can get a little generosity from everyone, that will make for a hell of a lot of wine, a hell of a lot of donations at the auction and please believe me that every dollar counts in Haiti right now.

We are working on the WINE FOR HAITI fund-raising project in conjunction with a US wine network called PALATE PRESS which is run by David Honig and a host of respected wine writers. So this is not an isolated fund-raising effort. It's hands across the sea and all of that malarkey, and we will be promoting our efforts in conjunction with theirs in the US too. It's Live Aid without the music... okay, not a great analogy, but you get the idea.

And we NEED publicity. LOTS of it.

SO I HAVE ANOTHER FAVOUR TO ASK.

I will be contacting newspapers, radio and TV in an effort to get the word out. But please bear in mind that there is only one of me, and all the work I do on BoozeMonkey is voluntary -- I have a day-job too (shocking, isn't it?). So if you know anyone in the media -- even if it's only the tea boy in your local newspaper office -- then it would be a great help if you could tell them about what we are doing. Just direct them to the blog here.

And if you& have a direct line to anyone in the wine media -- James Halliday, Nick Stock, Matt Skinner, Oz Clarke, Natalie MacLean -- then please just pick up the phone and tell them we would like to hear from them.

We've already got Jancis Robinson, Matthew Jukes, Tyson Stelzer, Jeremy Oliver, Huon Hooke and Gary Vaynerchuk on-board. But we need as many people spreading the word as possible.

One more thing.

Here is a link to the WINE FOR HAITI ads we're running on the site: if you have a website or a blog, please consider posting one of the ads for us as a link to the fund-raising appeal here on BoozeMonkey. Every little bit of publicity we get will help to make our fund-raising efforts snowball.

People are dying and we CAN do something about it.

But we can't do it without your help.

So please -- pretty please -- give up a few minutes of your time to help.

Cheers!

Matt

PS -- DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE THE DETAILS OF YOUR DONATION IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW. YOU WILL NEED TO LOG IN TO LEAVE A COMMENT.

FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT DESPATCHING DONATIONS TO OUR SYDNEY WAREHOUSE >>> CAN BE FOUND HERE <<<