Do-Good Wines and Charitable Wines

O Wines was the first "Do Good" wine I noticed; by "do good," I mean a wine that, when sold, the producers donate all or part of the proceeds to a charity of some sort. I've written about O Wines' Chardonnay here. But there are quite a few notable wineries selling specially marked bottles of wine and donating part of the proceeds to charities—particulary, charities that fight breast cancer or support those affected by breast cancer.

Since 2001, Sutter Home Family Vineyards has raised money in support of breast cancer treatment, research and education via their Sutter Home for Hope project. Purchase any bottle of Sutter Hom wine, and sent the "capsule," the round circular seal on the top of the bottle in to Sutter Home, and they'll donate a dollar for every one sent until December 31, 2009. They've designed special pink bottles with a ribbon on the label, but any Sutter Home capsule is acceptable, up to a total of $100,000. Like many of us, Sutter Home's owners and staff became activists when someone they knew, owner Vera Trinchero, one of the founding family members, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Two brothers, Erik and Alex Bartholomaus wanted to honor their mother, who lost a battle with cancer, and at the same time, raise money for cancer-related charities, started a small wine company in 2002, and donated .50 cents from every bottle to a cancer-related charity. They were so successful, they began to donate to charities in the states where their wine was sold, and arranging matching donations. They now have a number of wines for sale bearing the Big Tattoo and Two Brothers labels, and have increased their charitable efforts.

Washington Hills winery in Washington state has specially marked bottles of their consumer "core value" wines with pink labels and a pink ribbon logo available for sale.; I can't find anything about the endeavor on their Web site, but the bottle of their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon I purchased yesterday says that they donate to breast cancer charities when we buy their wines. I'll let you know what I think later this week.

This past week, Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams announced the the micro blogging social networking service would be partnering with Crushpad, a winery, to produce wine to raise funds for Room to Read, a San Francisco California charity that builds schools, buys books, and creates scholarships to support literacy for children in poor countries. The wine will be made with California grapes from notable vineyards and selling a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay for $20.00 a bottle, with $5.00 going to Room to Read. The joint project is called The Fledgeling Initiative, the wine Fledgling.

Crushpad is an interesting company. Crushpad is a boutique winery, with custom wine-making services, including opportunities for people to actually participate in wine making, wine blending, wind blending kits, and custom "wedding wines."

There's a PR video featuring Michael Brill, the founder of Crushpad embedded below, and an active Twitter feed here. If you live in one of the fourteen or so states that allow wine to be shipped, you can buy a bottle now for delivery later.