Twitter Sells Wine to Benefit Charity

by Alexa Weibel, Posted Oct 15th 2009 @ 3:30PM

Pinot Noir grapes. Photo: mollyali, Flickr.

The folks behind social media site Twitter are expanding their empire to the wine business.

Beginning Thursday, Twitter is selling its own "Fledgling" wine, with the proceeds benefiting the nonprofit literacy group Room to Read, according to Jenna Sampson, a spokeswoman for Twitter.

San Francisco wine company Crushpad is helping Twitter make the vino. The company, which enables wine enthusiasts to make, sell and design their own wine, is providing everything from the grapes and equipment to expertise and advice for the social networking site.

"We gradually started meeting people [from Twitter]," and the idea of a outreach collaboration simply "kept growing and growing and growing," said Noah Dorrance, marketing director for Crushpad.

Though not the first social outreach effort by Twitter, this one is expected to garner more attention due to the inherent popularity of wine.

Fledgling Pinot Noir or Chardonnay is available from FledglingWine.com for $20, a quarter of which goes directly to Room to Read (the remaining amount is a direct production cost). For every case of "Fledgling" sold, Room to Read will buy 60 books in local languages benefiting communities around the world.

Room to Read -- whose motto is "World Change Starts with Educated Children" -- partners with communities worldwide to create educational opportunities for children, with initiatives ranging from the creation of local libraries, schools and literature to providing education for girls.

[Via SFweekly.com]

Filed Under: Food News, Drink Recipes
Tags: crushpad, fledgling wine, FledglingWine, homemade wine, HomemadeWine, room to read, RoomToRead, twitter, wine