More than 300 people participate in the charity wine-tasting 'Vi per Vida' to raise funds for research into metastasis

At midday today, more than 300 people participated in the first charity wine-tasting event Vi per Vida, an initiative promoted by the sommelier from Mollerussa Xavi Ayala with the aim to support research into metastasis.

The mayor of Mollerussa, Marc Solsona, opened the event, which was held in the Pavelló Firal and coincides with the World No Tobacco Day. Solsona said that the capital of the Pla d’Urgell region wanted to support this endeavour because of its social value and invited everyone to sign up for future initiatives launched with this objective.

The person behind Vi per Vida, Xavier Ayala, thanked the different institutions, friends, and family for their collaboration in helping to get this initiative off the ground. In fact, the second event is already planned to be held in Mollerussa on 23 May 2015. The Minister of Agriculture, Josep Maria Pelegrí, closed the event, which he praised for associating wine with health. The event also involved the director of the Institut Català de la Vinya i el Vi (INCAVI), Jordi Bort, and the director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), Joan Guinovart, the centre that will receive the funds raised.

This first charity wine-tasting session, led by Xavi Ayala himself and presented by the journalist Elisabet Carnicé, has involved 7 wines from the designation of origin (DO) Costers del Segre, the only one that has 7 subzones.

More specifically, the participants had the opportunity to experience the following white wines: Auzells, from the Tomàs Cusiné vineyard (subzone Les Garrigues); Vi Bord, from the Batlliu de Sort vineyard (subzone Pallars), which made a special “Vi per Vida” edition; Onra Blanc, from the La Gravera vineyard (subzone Segrià); and Blanc de Roure, from the L’Olivera vineyard (subzone Valls del Riu Corb). With respect to the red wines, the tasting included Raimat Vallcorba, from the Raimat vineyard (subzone Raimat), Petit Grealó, from the Vinya l’Hereu cellar (subzone d’Artesa) and Oda Magnum, from the Castell del Remei vineyard (subzone Urgell).

During the event—which lasted an hour and a half and was accompanied by a soundtrack of Catalan rock songs—a video was also shown of messages from various people in the arts. These included the designer of the logotype of the initiative, the illustrator Pilarín Bayés; from gastronomy, the Roca brothers; from the music scene, the lead Singer of Mishima, David Carabén; and from the field of medicine, Doctor Joan Massagué, an international expert in research into metastasis and IRB cofounder together with Dr Joan Guinovart.

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