The Days of Wine and Rodeo

NAPA, Calif., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ — Purple Cowboy is a new wine that will
help raise money for breast cancer and launches at the 50th Wrangler National
Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas this month.

Purple and pink may be an unlikely color combination, but in terms of the
professional rodeo community’s commitment to end breast cancer, it’s a perfect
match.

This year, Las Vegas will host the ultimate championship of professional
rodeo — the Wrangler National Finals — and Purple Cowboy will be there to
celebrate. Purple Cowboy wines were created by entrepreneur and breast cancer
survivor Terry Wheatley in honor of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo’s 50th
Birthday. It just so happens that Wheatley is also is the founder of Tough
Enough to Wear Pink — an awareness campaign that has been embraced by the
western community since 2004.

Terry Wheatley is a wine executive and wife and mother to professional
rodeo competitors. After her own bout with breast cancer, a disease that has
affected her mother, grandmother and daughter, she dared the world’s elite
rodeo athletes to wear a touch of pink as they competed under the bright
lights in Las Vegas. The goal was simple: a single evening of the intense
ten-night Wrangler National Final Rodeo Competition dedicated not only to the
highest level of rodeo competition, but to address a disease that touches one
in eight women. Cowboy, cowgirls and horses alike were asked to wear pink and
send a message that the western community cared about those who suffered.

A spectacle ensued as fashion savvy cowgirls and tough cowboys galloped
into the arena styled in pink. The enthusiasm and sense of giving back
captured the imagination and enthusiasm of the rodeo world at that first
National Finals Rodeo Event — from competitors to the fans and sponsors.
Since 2004, the campaign has spread to regional and hometown rodeos across the
U.S. and Canada, and has raised almost 4 million dollars to support breast
cancer research nationally and in local communities.

This year, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the world’s signature
rodeo event, Wheatley decided to create a wine with roots in the western
landscape. Purple Cowboy wines are made from grapes grown in Paso Robles, a
region on the South Central Coast of California. Long considered a cow town
and outpost, rugged Paso Robles is now recognized by the top wine critics for
the quality of its wines — particularly the deep purple and intense Syrah –
it produces.

Says Wheatley: “The cowboys I know like big red wines — the kind of
wines that make your teeth purple. I created Purple Cowboy in that style –
50% Syrah and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon — and then I decided that it would be
the ideal wine to support our cause.”

For every bottle of Purple Cowboy sold, a donation is made to Tough Enough
to Wear Pink. Purple Cowboy wines will be poured by the glass at many of the
most popular Las Vegas watering holes. Purple Cowboy wines are available
nationally. Tough Enough to Wear Pink night is scheduled for Wednesday,
December 10th, 2008.

SOURCE Purple Cowboy Wines