While more than 11,600 wineries are operating in the U.S.—with at least one in all 50 states—Black-owned wineries and wine brands only account for less than 1% of the industry, according to the Association of African American Vintners (AAAV). The figures are just as bleak for Black sommeliers, too. Of the 168 Master Sommeliers in the U.S., only four are Black. While statistics may give the impression that Black people have no significant place in America’s wine history, the truth is that there wouldn’t be one without them.
Though there is little record of it, enslaved people did the brunt of the labor associated with winemaking before the Civil War. Thomas Jefferson, a major proponent of the American wine industry in the 1800s, owned more than 190 acres of land dedicated to grape vineyards cultivated by enslaved Africans in Virginia. In Orra Langhorne’s 1888 book Southern Sketches from Virginia, she writes of enjoying wine made by Robert Scott, the grandson of an enslaved person. After Prohibition, when America’s wine industry was revitalized, John June Lewis, Sr., became the first Black American to own and operate a winery in the U.S. when he founded Woburn Winery in Clarksville, Virginia, in 1940.
However, many wine lovers are unaware of Lewis’s story.
“I actually learned about him through research for my job,” says Tasha Durrett, the founder of Black Women Who Wine, a Virginia-based organization that promotes agritourism and wine education. “I thought it was a shame that not many people knew about his story and his winery, especially since it lasted a good amount of time.”
Lewis learned about viticulture and winemaking through his father, Armistead Burwell, but his passion for wine wasn’t realized until he served during World War I, where he was stationed in the Rhine Valley in Germany. Lewis inherited his father’s land shortly after his return home from the war, and almost immediately following Prohibition’s repeal, he planted 10 acres of wine grapes in 1933. When Lewis established Woburn in 1940, he specialized in dry and sweet wine production using native American grapes like Concord. His wines were sold under the Virginia-Carolina label and were believed to be the only ones produced with estate-grown grapes in Virginia at the time.
Although sales figures for Lewis’s wines are unknown, Woburn Winery was a big success for Virginia’s wine industry. Lewis continued production under the Virginia-Carolina label until he died in 1970. “He actually had some longevity, which is pretty impressive even now for wineries. And it was clear that he was known throughout the area, not only by Black people but by white consumers as well,” says Durrett.
As the first — and only — Black winemaker in the segregated South, there’s plenty of inspiration to draw from Lewis, and today, Black wine professionals across the U.S. are finding encouragement in his story. “Knowing that there was someone in this industry who was truly a creator and was able to step into this space and say, ‘I’m going to do it anyway,’ it’s just a beautiful reminder for us to ignore the sensor,” says Tiquette Bramlett, the Our Legacy Harvested founder who was the first Black woman to oversee a major U.S. winery in 2021.
“It’s very easy to listen to somebody tell you what you can and cannot do, but it feels much more empowering when you remind yourself that you can do it anyway. And I think [Lewis] is a true testament to that. Every time I go back to where he was and when he created his winery, it literally gives me chills. You can only imagine what he had to endure just because he wanted to step into this space, and it’s remarkable that he did it anyway,” says Bramlett.
Not long after Lewis’s death, another Black man made waves in the U.S. wine industry when Raymen Fedderman, a former Virginia sharecropper and successful Prattsburgh, New York entrepreneur and business owner, opened the doors of Fedderman Wine Co, in the Finger Lakes in 1972. Fedderman produced two wines, Irene Red, named after his wife, and Rosalind White, inspired by his business partner’s wife. Unfortunately, not long after the winery doors were opened, Fedderman was forced to close when things went awry with the Central Trust Bank, which loaned him money to launch the facility.
Still, Black people have persisted, continuing to make achievements in the U.S. wine industry.
In the 1990s, they began establishing wineries on the West Coast, starting with Brown Estate, launched by Daneen, David, and Coral Brown in 1995 on land purchased by their parents in the Chiles Valley AVA in 1980. Soon after, Rideau Vineyard was launched, the first winery owned by a Black woman, Iris Rideau, in the Santa Ynez Valley in 1997. That same year, Mac McDonald founded the famous Vision Cellars in Sonoma County.
In the years since, more Black-owned wineries and brands have launched, including some that have become household names like McBride Sisters Collection, La Fête Wine, Theopolis Vineyards, and Longevity Wines. Such success has opened the door for an influx of new brands that have emerged over the last decade, signaling a slow but steady change for Black representation across the industry.
At the same time, more Black people have entered the industry as students of wine, studying in educational programs like Wine and Spirits Education Trust and the Court of Master Sommeliers and various hospitality programs. Several organizations have sprung up—like the AAAV, Wine Unify, Roots Fund, and Bramlett’s organization, among others—providing opportunities for people of color to get more involved.
“I want the wine space to match the world that I live in, and that’s the evolution that I have begun to see,” says Bramlett. “We’re here, and we’re doing it our way, and we’re showing up. And people are responding to that.”