Decanter wine magazine auctioned off more than 4,000 bottles of top quality wine entered into this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), generating £66,000 for international charity WaterAid – the highest amount ever raised.
The annual ‘Wine for Water’ auction was held at Christie’s King Street headquarters on 10 October, and bidders were able to get their hands on wines from around the world whilst also helping transform lives, with all proceeds going to support WaterAid’s work in some of the world’s poorest communities.
The initiative has been running since 2005, and over the past 13 years, Decanter has now raised over £650,000 for WaterAid to help improve access to clean water, good sanitation and hygiene.
Currently, one in three people worldwide do not have a decent toilet, and one in nine don’t have clean water close to home. As a result, around 800 children die every single day from related diarrhoeal diseases.
Helena Flippance, Corporate Partnerships Executive at WaterAid, said:
“WaterAid is incredibly grateful to Decanter and its readers for their ongoing support of our work by helping turn wine into water. Through the annual auction, Decanter has raised over half a million pounds over the years – that’s enough to help more than 30,000 people get access to clean water.
“We are so excited that this year’s auction has raised the biggest amount yet! Let’s keep working together to change lives for good; working in partnership, we can make a far bigger impact than we could acting alone.”
Robin McMillan, Managing Director at Decanter Magazine, said:
“We are delighted with this year’s record breaking DWWA Christie’s auction, and immensely proud of our relationship with WaterAid, joining together to raise lifesaving funds. With the hundreds of thousands of pounds already raised, we are really helping to transform lives in some of the world’s poorest communities.
“It costs about £15 to provide one person with clean water – that’s the average price of just one bottle of wine sold at the auction. Here at Decanter we’re really excited that we can turn our passion for wine into such a precious and vital resource. Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are vital ingredients for living a dignified, healthy life.”
The auction consisted of 91 lots. To learn more about WaterAid visit www.wateraid.org.
