Twitter is Launching Its Own 'Fledgling' Wine Label

Forget drinking the company Kool-Aid. Twitter employees will soon be drinking the company wine.

​Also known on Twitter as Bottles for Books , Fledgling Wines marks Twitter's foray into the winemaking business. Yep, that's right: Twitter's making and selling it's own branded wines, with the help of S.F. DIY winery Crushpad. Proceeds will go to Room to Read, a nonprofit promoting literacy for children in challenged parts of the world, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Zambia.

Dogpatch-based Crushpad -- a place that allows amateur vinophiles to make and sell their own wine, brand and label included -- has more than a little in common with Silicon Valley. The business philosophy behind both calls for investing in the product and customer experience, with revenue naturally following. Better yet, both believe in creating platforms that help businesses feed other businesses, including nonprofits. It's what's allowed Crushpad to raise over $9 million in funding from its customers, and the stuff S.F.-based über startup Twitter is made of. So it's not surprising that the two companies are collaborating on an interesting online/offline project: The Fledgling Initiative.

In their online storefront, Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone explain that Twitter is doing its own growing up and is "only one percent into its journey" as a company. That's why it's fitting for Twitter to support a nonprofit that champions the education of young children, via a joint initiative that, in the company's words, "embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter's mission: Providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change."

Through this three-pronged partnership (Twitter-Crushpad-Room to Read), Twitter aspires to promote literacy and therefore, Williams and Stone write, "allow Twitter to grow -- because if you can't read you can't tweet!"

Starting today, you can reserve your Twitter-branded bottle of wine for $20, $5 of which goes toward Room to Read (the rest pays for production costs). Every case sold will buy 60 local language books in support of an organization that, to date, has established more than 700 schools and over 7,000 bilingual libraries with five million books.

Twitter is creating two wines to start, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay, Noah Dorrance, Crushpad's marketing director, told SFoodie. But, remaining true to the open nature of its own product, Twitter is not creating the wines all on its own: It's encouraging you to participate in the process.

The Twitter team participates in the company's winemaking project.
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Not only can you buy the wine, you can pitch in a string of related events, ranging from what Dorrance said will be Crushpad's biggest "virtual" barrel tasting to a possible label design contest. Naturally, you can keep up to date on these efforts -- as well as get the play-by-play as the Twitter team rolls up its sleeves and makes wine -- via the dedicated Twitter account.

By the way, a little bird (sorry) told us the introduction that bred this project might have been made via Chris Sacca, a Twitter investor, during the process of making Lowercase Wines, Sacca's own Crushpad label, with Crystal English. (Full disclosure: This blogger helped sort the grapes for the wine -- and enjoyed every minute of it.)

Sacca and English will also donate wine to Room to Read, which is hosting a fundraiser tonight in S.F.; you can get tickets here.

So now we have yet another great excuse to drink up and tweet (okay, maybe not simultaneously; that's fodder for a whole 'nother story).