2010 VIRGIN ISLANDS WINEMAKERS DINNERS FEATURE 7 DINNERS & LUNCHEONS WITH CHEFS & WINEMAKERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD BETWEEN DECEMBER 1st AND 7th

Lynette Harrigan, BVI Tourist Board; Sous Chef Moraima Portalatin Febus; Ajit Mathew George and Chef Roberto Trevino, Budatai, Puerto Rico - December 3, 2009 7 Course Dinner at Baraka Point, Virgin Gorda.

Photo Credit: Tim Williamson, TDWMedia

Lynette Harrigan, BVI Tourist Board; Sous Chef Moraima Portalatin Febus; Ajit Mathew George and Chef Roberto Trevino, Budatai, Puerto Rico - December 3, 2009 7 Course Dinner at Baraka Point, Virgin Gorda.

Photo Credit: Tim Williamson, TDWMedia

VIRGIN GORDA, British Virgin Islands (July 27, 2010) - The BVI Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation (BVI) Limited announced today at the breakfast meeting of Rotary Club Sunrise of Road Town that the 2010 Virgin Islands Winemakers Dinners will be held between December 1st and 7th. This year´s event will feature seven gourmet 5-course dinners and seven delicious 3-course luncheons at a collection of special venues throughout the BVI. Each of the 2010 dinners will feature five gourmet courses with each course prepared by a master chef and paired with two wines poured by award winning winemakers.

Mr. Ajit Mathew George, Co-Chair of the BVI Charitable Fund stated that the net proceeds of the 2010 Winemakers Dinners will be distributed to YEP (Youth Empowerment Project); the Food & Beverage Management Program at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College; Sailability BVI; BVI Special Olympics and the swimming pool project of Virgin Gorda Charitable Company Ltd.

This year´s Winemakers Dinners include new partnerships with the Rotary Club Sunrise of Road Town, the Rotary Club of Road Town, the Food & Beverage Management Program at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College and YEP (Youth Empowerment Project).

The members of these two Rotary Clubs in the BVI will be selling a limited number of tickets to the seven Winemakers Luncheons at $50 per ticket with 80% of the proceeds of each such ticket sale benefitting the member´s Rotary Club. Mr. George, a member of the Rotary Club Sunrise of Road Town thanked President Ken Guiste of the Rotary Club Sunrise of Road Town and President Charles Benjamin of the Rotary Club of Road Town for joining forces with the BVI Charitable Fund to raise money for local charities. He thanked President Lorna Smith of the Rotary Club of Tortola for attending this kick-off and publicly expressing her support of the Winemakers Dinners.

A new partnership with the Food & Beverage Management Program at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College will feature a unique five-course dinner on Sunday, December 5th at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College for eighty guests. Each course will be prepared by a visiting master chef who will be paired with a chef based in the BVI, with the assistance of the students and faculty of the college. Each of these courses will be paired with two wines poured by the visiting winemakers.

Stacy Mather of YEP stated that the young members of YEP will be working very hard between now and December 1st to create a piece of custom art work to present to each chef, winemaker and member of the press that is visiting the Virgin Islands for the 2010 Winemakers Dinners. Mr. George said that this wonderful blend of art, food and wine would be much appreciated by our visitors and serve as an excellent way to leverage this event.

While Chef Vikram Garg from Halekulani Resort in Waikiki, Hawaii will remain as the Founding Executive Chef, he will be collaborating with Chef Alexander Yates from The Restaurant at Leverick Bay who will serve as the Executive Chef of the 2010 Virgin Islands Winemakers Dinners. Mr. George praised Chef Yates for volunteering his time and talent to coordinate all the logistics of this year´s menus and ordering all the exotic ingredients from around the world for the visiting chefs. In addition, Chef Yates arranged for Leverick Bay Resort and Marina to host all the visiting chefs who will all have access to the kitchen at The Restaurant at Leverick Bay to prep each day´s meals. "This is exactly the kind of partnership that will help us make this very successful event become even more successful," said Mr. George.

In 2009, over 860 people in total attended the four dinners, seven luncheons and the VIP Reception between December 2nd and 6th which featured 74 separate courses of food, and 81 different wines that were paired with these courses. During the July series of the Winemakers Dinners, about 1,000 people in total attended the four dinners, seven luncheons and the VIP Reception, which featured 78 separate courses of food, and 87 different wines that were paired with these courses.

Mr. George reported that both the July and December series of the 2009 Winemakers Dinners were completely sold out in advance with a waiting list for each dinner. He also reported that all the lunches were very popular. The net proceeds of the 2009 Winemakers Dinners will be distributed between September and November 2010.

He stated, "The 2009 Winemakers Dinners were a series of exclusive events during which guests had the opportunity to meet some of the most gifted winemakers in the world and sample their award-winning wines. These wines were expertly paired with innovative creations by international master chefs together with some BVI chefs."

Martin Dindos, owner of OHMS, a company that imports premium white wines from Germany´s Mosel Valley and fine champagnes and a Founding Sponsor, helped convince many of the winemakers to donate rare and exclusive wines for the event and the silent wine auctions, and fly to BVI for the dinners.

Wine and food pairings will be made by Richard Grosche, wine journalist from German wine magazine Weinwelt and manager of the international wine academy MUNDUS vini. OHMS - which stands for On Her Majesty´s Service - also donated the fine Czech porcelain and glasses for the five course place settings each evening. In addition to OHMS, the other Founding Sponsor is Allivictus.

The Co-Chairs of the BVI Charitable Fund are the Premier of the British Virgin Islands, the Hon. Ralph T. O´Neal, OBE and Ajit Mathew George. The BVI Charitable Fund was established in March 2008 with a $25,000 challenge grant from Nail Bay Resort to help promote this destination to potential new visitors while at the same time creating new and innovative fund-raising events to benefit various charities in the BVI by attracting support from both outside and within the BVI. The BVI Charitable Fund is part of the Community Foundation (BVI) Limited. Information on visiting chefs, winemakers and the location of the dinners and luncheons will be published in installments beginning on August 9th on www.winemakersdinners.com.