Drink Up: Italians Sell Wine for AIDS

Some of Italy's finest vintage wines are up for grabs to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa.

Tuscany's Petrolo winery produces a mere 70,000 bottles annually, but it is joining a coalition of winemakers across Italy who are donating a portion of their proceeds to the Wine for Life program. The project began seven years ago with a Rome-based religious group, the Sant' Egidio Community.

"It's all about love, taking the love that we receive from nature, in the form of wine, and giving it back to the earth, in the form of helping our needy brothers and sisters in Africa," Petrolo owner Luca Sanjust told Reuters.

His is one of 120 wineries whose bottles bear a label reading, "Wine for Life; this bottle helps fight AIDS in Africa. In eight years, 2 million bottles have been produced for the program.

Fifty euro cents goes to Sant' Egidio's Drug Resource Enhancement Against AIDS and Malnutrition (DREAM) program, which offers antiretroviral treatments to those in need. DREAM helps people in several countries, including Malawi, Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Wine for Life project generals about 250,000 euros, or $379,000, annually.