Alanna and pete walking

27 Seconds Wine is on a mission to end slavery and use people power to do that. Every 27 seconds one child is sold into slavery according to Unicef. That’s 1.2 million children every year. Thats’ when the penny dropped for Alanna and Pete whilst away on a trip to Kolkata, India. A trip down an alleyway as a shortcut they noticed a gaggle of teenage girls standing aside. They had been trafficked in Nepal and sold into prostitution.

The stark reality of what was happening hit this couple. Hard.

grapes in box riesling blue label

There are more people in slavery today than ever before and knowing how to help the situation can see an impossible task. But with what we know about grassroots support experts always say look at what you have around you, look at what you’re good at and starting small is still very very important. So that’s what Alanna and Pete did but with an audacious goal.

Pete is manager of the family vineyard and so they set about creating a wine where 100% of the profits go towards ending slavery. Wine and slavery are not a natural fit but this is their way of being involved somehow.

Make wine. Sell lots of it. give 100% profits. 27 Seconds was born.

Pinot gris yellow lable on table Sauvignon blanc green label alanna and pete smiling grapes in hand

Who are these people?

Alanna and Pete work on their family vineyard Terrace Edge in the beautiful Waipara and so a natural in the wine industry: how could slavery and wine fit?

When you’re stuck for how to help the best way is to do the thing you’re good at. Good at knitting? Knit for people who need warm clothes. Great at making water carriers out of plastic bottles? Make them for people who need them. Educate yourself. Learn. Demand attention to injustice. March. Vote. Work hard at it. And pull in your community of people who also love the thing you do.

This is exactly what Pete and Alanna did. And still do.

Pinot noir red label rose blue label

Where does the money go?

Every cent that is made from your purchase of 27 Seconds wine goes to Hagar an organisation who works with survivors of slavery, trafficking and severe abuse through intensive recovery care. Those from Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam. They work through the whole journey, assessing needs and recovery with a range of highly competent staff.  Recovery and trauma care, access to education, economic empowerment and systematic change.

So if you love your rosé more than your sister get theirs, if you want to bath in a lovely pinot gris make it 27 Seconds. They have all taste buds catered for. A divine riesling (the reason I contacted them when I shouted “who the hell made this wine?”), rosé, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc and the delicious pinot noir. All with humans in mind.

back of a wine label

Where to get them?
Currently a list of New Worlds and independent stockists and the nearest to Queenstown is Alexandra Henry’s, but there is online purchase and also lots to choose from here.

Alanna and Pete are everything I love about humanity. Feeling so far away from an issue they thought about what they could do. A little thing, an offering but in that offering spreads information and education. And in that spread of information comes discussion (probably over wine). Which blossoms into other ideas and so on. And that’s where we change things.

It’s worth it.

Keep going.

27 Seconds Wine
328 Georges Road, RD2
North Canterbury
New Zealand

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I have written about 27 Seconds because I completely love what they are doing and thought you might too.