Fairhills debuts Chilean range in UK

Fairhills, the world's leading Fairtrade wine brand, is launching a brand new range of Chilean wines into the UK market. It is extending its wine production and community support work, via the Fairtrade initiative, into Chile.

Fairhills also supports some of the largest Fairtrade initiatives in South Africa and Argentina.

Fairhills Chile will launch into the UK with the 2008 vintage and will comprise dual varietals, a Ros and single varietals such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere.

Fairhills, owned by South African wine company Origin Wine, is now not only the leading Fairtrade wine brand in the world, but will be the ONLY wine brand to cover all three Fairtrade wine producing countries, South Africa, Argentina and Chile, focussing on improving the communities and the lives of the workers throughout these three countries.

Fairhills is currently in process with FLO-CERT, the Fairtrade accreditation body in Germany, to obtain accreditation for Vina Santa Irene, in the Curico Valley, and will be developing links with producers in other regions to drive the inherent message of the brand.

The cornerstone of the Fairhills initiative is to highlight and drive the social development initiatives across all three countries.

Bernard Fontannaz, CEO of Origin Wine, says: "The 2008 vintage will be the first for Fairhills Chile, and both Origin Wine and Vina Santa Irene, are highly excited by the project, which will deliver optimum quality wines, whilst supporting the local community. The initial objectives of the project are to incorporate a daycare facility, and a secure environment for children, together with an improvement in the drinking water facilities and heating systems for households.

"The message is clear the recipe for Fairhills has been proven via the South African initiative, where the focus on Fairtrade and ethics has resulted in a large scale, successful project, which goes from strength to strength."

Origin Wine Ltd is committed to driving the Fairtrade message, to establishing strong brands and to supplying high quality Fairtrade wines from across the three countries in order to continue the support work that was started in South Africa, and is now becoming increasingly important in South America.

Fairhills wines from Chile are priced at around £5.00 for the dual varietals and Ros and £6.00 for single varietals such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere.

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