Good Wine
Alanna and Pete Chapman’s social enterprise wine label, 27seconds, donates its entire profits to help end modern-day slavery.
How 27seconds Wine is helping others
For many people, the prospect of sharing a bottle of delicious New Zealand wine has plenty of feel-good factor. If it’s a 27seconds wine, that factor ramps up a notch when you discover the mindful practices of its makers. “We believe that good wine is first made in the vineyard,” says Alanna Chapman, one half of the husband-andwife duo behind 27seconds. “So we put extra care into ensuring the land is healthy, which in turn creates better fruit, which creates better wine. We grow grapes using only natural growing methods and hand tend our vines.” By now that bottle is positively glowing – but wait, there’s more.
What if, with the purchase of that wine, you were helping to end modern-day slavery? For Pete and Alanna, that is the idea behind 27seconds wines. All profits from the label go to the NGO Hagar, who help to prevent modern-day slavery and rehabilitate those who have suffered because of it.
The couple had witnessed the horror of slavery on a trip to India in 2011. Visiting friends who run Freeset – a social enterprise who focus on positive employment opportunities for women affected by sex trafficking – they were walking past some teenage girls in Kolkata who looked out of place and after asking about them, discovered they’d been trafficked from Nepal and sold into prostitution. The moment hit them hard and they knew they had to help.
The idea for how to help the cause eventually came to Pete because of a glut of grapes. He and his family own and run the organic Terrace Edge Vineyard and Olive Grove in the gorgeous Waipara Valley in North Canterbury. “Pete thought of it when driving home,” says Alanna. “We had surplus riesling grapes and he thought it would be a great fundraiser. When he shared the idea I loved it.
“Hagar made sense because I had worked there. I trusted their development practises and had seen the impact they made in people’s lives.”
In setting up the new wine label, the name came easy enough. UNICEF estimates 1.2 million children are sold into slavery every year – that’s one every 27seconds. The rest took a bit more hard work. “We were a little naïve,” explains Alanna. “While we had our other vineyard label, Terrace Edge, this was starting from scratch. We didn’t have any start-up capital, so naturally we tried doing everything on a budget.” This became a community effort and the pair were overwhelmed with support from friends and neighbours.
“The highlight of the journey has been seeing our community advocate to have our wine at their local supermarket, drink it at their wedding or organise it for their corporate gifts,” says Alanna. “When people do this, you feel like you’re a team working towards a greater cause. And that is so satisfying.”