If you live in the UK I’m sure you’ve heard of Comic Relief. If you don’t, please forgive the eccentricities of this peculiar little country, but there are times when you just have to do something a little out of the ordinary.

Comic Relief is a charity event, based around “Red Nose Day” on March 18th, that gets millions of people involved in raising money for charity, mainly through comedy and making a fool of yourself in public (those not always being the same thing). The charity supports projects in the UK and Africa mainly, and counts on the support of thousands of volunteers, and a great many celebrities.

One such ‘celebrity’ is Jancis Robinson, who with her husband Nick Lander, has helped to coordinate the wine trade’s participation in this event under the banner of “Wine Relief”. I’ve been involved in these projects in the past, including quizzes and tastings. In 2009 they raised over £880,000! I’m sure they aim to smash that this year.

I encourage all of you to make some contribution to a worthy cause if you can. The easiest way is to buy more wine. There are plenty wines to buy (with 10% of proceeds going to charity) from many retailers such as Virgin Wines, M&S, Waitrose, Majestic, Booths, Wine Rack & Laithwaites, so you can contribute at the same time as enjoying some nice wines. There are some reviews of these wines on Simon Woods’ blog already, and I hope to check a few of them out myself soon too.

I hope to take part in a BYO evening with a difference (plans being made as we speak), but check out the Facebook page for information, links to offers and events, and join in the fun, and let me know if you have plans (or better still, “Like” the Wine Relief 2011 Facebook Page and leave a note for others to see).