Room to Read is a San-Francisco-based non-profit, which aims to "empower millions of children in the developing world through education." Twitter staff will participate in making a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay with Crushpad, a winery (also based out of San Francisco). Consumers will be invited to pre-purchase bottles of the wine (and follow its progress on Twitter), and even be able to take part in some stages of its creation. Once it’s ready, five dollars from every bottle that is sold will go directly to Room to Read for the purpose of enabling literacy programs in some of the poorest parts of the world.

"Like our friends at Twitter, Room to Read is thinking big and growing fast. This innovative partnership will allow us to bring new libraries to thousands of children in developing communities across Asia and Africa," said John Wood, founder and executive chairman of Room to Read.

"Not only does Room to Read’s get-things-done approach speak to our start-up mentality, but as a company we want to find ways to make a positive impact in the world," said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who seems to really like wine:

"We’re excited to contribute to this initiative by creating two great wines,” said Michael Brill, CEO of Crushpad. "Using the same vineyards and state-of-the-art winemaking that we’re known for, our goal is to seriously over-deliver on both quality and experience."

The wine itself will be available in the fall of 2010. It is currently in the fermentation process. More information about the project can be found here.

Napa Valley Vintners, a nonprofit organization representing more than 300 vintners in California, has started workshops for wineries that want to sell their wine on Amazon, according to Terry Hall, communications director for the group.

"They have been working for a while on this wine project. Now they are signing up the wineries," Hall told Reuters. "They’re fast-tracking it right now."

Amazon will sell wine in about 26 states and wine sold on the site will come from all areas of the country.

In 2007 total U.S. wine sales were between $30 billion and $32 billion, according to Barbara Insel, president of Stonebridge Research Group, a company focused on the wine industry.

Amazon will be working with New Vine Logistics, a Napa, California firm that operates in wine fulfillment and can ship to 45 states. Amazon is working with the company to ensure that the wine is legally shipped.

Customers enrolled in Amazon Prime, a discount shipping program will qualify for free shipping on any wine purchases.

"The good news is it (Amazon selling wine) puts some big muscle behind direct-to-consumer so consumers of wine should benefit," Hall said.

 Amazon.com Senior Wine Buyer

The company most famous for moving books, CDs, and DVDs has placed an ad for a "Senior Buyer, Wine."  According to the listing, "The Sr. Buyer is responsible for the acquisition of massive new product selection, as Specialty Foods is an emerging segment and the Sr. Buyer will work to build out entirely new selection from the ground up.  Responsibilities will include sourcing leads, defining and tuning a leads qualification process, and calling on vendors directly, both from our Seattle corporate offices and in the field."

Do everything, in other words, and do it on a large scale and quickly.

Amazon has dealt with wine before; as Jonathan Birchall notes, a partnership with Wine.com involving food baskets is still in place, and before that, an investment in Wineshopper.com fell through.  This history isn’t encouraging, but it must (one would think) indicate that Amazon has thought of some new and brilliant way to succeed this time.

If it does, if it doesn’t . . . my personal position is "meh."  Wake me up when Guinness gets mentioned.  But people in the liquor business, along with Amazon’s investors, are sure to be watching things closely.