We’ve had the privilege of hearing from some of the most
successful women in the wine industry, but it was Terry Wheatley who really got
me thinking about the demographics of the industry as a whole. I really
appreciated her candor in her remarks about how her gender and age ae perceived
in the industry. I’ve heard many times that, like most industries, the wine
industry suffers from a lack of diversity, both in distribution, retail, and
wine making. So I did some digging in hopes of finding stories of minority,
female, and LGBTQ winemakers and to understand what some of the barriers are
when it comes to breaking into the industry.
My search brought me to Bertony Faustin, Oregon's first
black winemaker. Faustin describes the wine industry's stereotype as being one
of status and racial homogeneity. But today, more African-Americans and other
minority groups are increasingly making and drinking fine wine and wine-tasting
clubs for African -Americans have proliferated. The shift, many experts say, is
making the industry less elitist and attracting a diversity of customers. For
generations, social class — and, hence, wealth and race — limited Americans'
access to fine wine. Marcia Jones, host of the syndicated weekly radio show
"Wine Talk” explains that Civil Rights is just 50 years old and the opportunities
that were made available for minorities to enjoy things like dining out at
established restaurants is fairly new. In the wine industry, there are only a
few dozen black vintners across the country, about 20 of them in Napa Valley.
But their inroads into winemaking reflect the country's massive social changes
and increasing economic mobility[1].
In the hopes of debunking myths, Bertony Faustin is making a
documentary film about breaking the racial barrier, with the goals of giving
more visibility to African-American, Latino, Asian and gay vintners and
empowering the next generation to drink and pursue wine-related jobs. His documentary, "Red, White and
Black," will feature several people of color and a lesbian couple; their
stories, he says, prove that despite financial barriers and lack of vintner
lineage — himself included — first-generation minority winemakers can succeed.
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