Wine brand raises funds to save gorillas

Conviviality Retail has donated €2,500 to a gorilla protection charity using proceeds from sales of Gorilla brand wines at its Wine Rack stores.

Susan McCraith MW (left) presents Gorilla Organization executive director Jillian Miller with a cheque or €2,500

The off-licence operator invited consultant Susan McCraith MW to present a cheque for €2,500 to Jillian Miller, executive director of The Gorilla Organization, from sales of Gorilla wine – a brand created by UK-based importer and producer Crush Wines – in Wine Rack stores over the last two years.

The Gorilla brand was set up by Crush Wines founder and MD Chris Ellis, a keen advocate of animal conservation. The first wine of the range, and the inspiration for the name for the brand, was a varietal Grillo.

The brand also includes Primitivo and Syrah reds and a Nero d’Avola rosé. This year also saw the introduction of Gorilla ‘Reservation’, an appassimento-style wine made near Salento in Puglia, southern Italy.

“We are delighted to be able to help raise funds through sales of Gorilla wines through our stores for The Gorilla Organization and help support the projects set up by the Gorilla Organization in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” McCraith said.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the charity, Jillian Miller said the donated funds will be allocated to the Gorilla Organization’s most recent project in the Kahuzi National Park in the DRC.

The project is a tree-planting initiative designed to create a buffer zone that separates the forest habitat of the gorillas from local farmland, as well as providing communities with a source of firewood and timber.

“Gorillas as a species are hugely endangered and when we discovered that there are only about 900 mountain gorillas left in the wild, not to mention less than 300 Cross River gorillas, we felt a sense of responsibility to do what we could to try to help – hence the development of Gorilla wines,” Emma Laval, commercial manager of Crush Wines, said.

“We are proud to say that having partnered with The Gorilla Organization, we have been able to regularly donate money and help them with their conservation, education and research initiatives.”