By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff Monday, August 18th, 2008

The era of charity golf tournaments and awkward hotel dinner fundraisers are as out of style as knee-high argyle socks.

Today’s Central Coast nonprofits have tapped into a resource overflowing with classy products, unique facilities and people with time to donate: local wineries.

With vineyards flushed with budding grapes, many tri-county wineries are pairing up with nonprofits this summer and fall not just to help worthy causes, but to build their brands and introduce new audiences to their products.

“We get donation requests from all over the world daily. We could donate our entire inventory,” said Jac Jacobs, winemaker at Sylvester Winery in Paso Robles. Jacobs said his winery helps about 30 to 40 charities and, in the process, donates as many as 600 bottles of wine annually.

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