Uncorking New Libraries, One Bottle At a Time

By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 11/9/2009

Twitter hopes fans will uncork their enthusiasm for its latest launch: Fledging Wine, a vintage set to make its debut next fall, with proceeds going to Room to Read, an organization that builds libraries and schools across the globe.

“Twitter was trying to find a creative way to engage their employees,” says Sonia Torres, senior press relations associate for the San Francisco-based Room to Read. “And once they decided to do Fledgling Wine, they wanted to do it for a good cause.”

Fledgling Wine, so named because of the bird-theme that surrounds Twitter, has yet to be bottled, according to Crushpad, the custom winery overseeing this endeavor. Besides being located just one mile from Twitter’s headquarters in the Dogpatch section of San Francisco, a number of Twitter investors spend time at Crushpad making their own wine, says Noah Dorrance, the firm’s marketing director.

Twitter and Room to Read employees are being invited to help out on Fledgling’s conception as well, from going on a field trip to pick grapes at one of the vineyards, to pressing the fruit itself.

“And a big part of the idea is you can pre-buy the wine now and follow along with its creation,” says Dorrance.

For every $20 bottle of Fledgling Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, $5 will go to Room to Read to help finance its libraries, or what it calls reading rooms, plus schools, local language, and girls’ education programs, which the charity sponsors in nine countries across Asia and Africa. One case of wine, for example, funds approximately 60 new local language books, according to Fledgling’s Web site.

Room to Read works with local communities, which support the new school or program with sweat equity or donated land, then matched by capital from the charity over a three-year period.

“It’s staffed by all local nationals,” says Torres. “And we do local training so that it becomes sustainable.”

With Fledgling pre-orders just starting last month, it’s too early, says Torres, to know how much money sales of the wine will bring in for the organization. But already, Room to Read’s Twitter following has grown to more than 201,000 followers, which Torres says speaks to the influence of the digital network.

That’s likely to grow as Crushpad gears up for what Dorrance calls “the world’s largest barrel tasting,” sure to bring more people into this charitable wine-making experience closer to bottling date.

“We’re going to have a physical party where people can come to the [San Francisco] winery,” he says. “And we’re also going to have a live Web cast, and send barrel samples to everyone who pre-ordered the night before so they can have local parties too.”