‘Bias is a business killer,’ says the founder of the largest black-owned wine company in America

I love sparkling wine, and recently discovered McBride Sisters Wine Company and this special bottle of Sparkling Brut Rosé. I became obsessed. I brought my new favorite bottle to dinner parties, opened it when guests offered it, and gave it to a girlfriend. My friends love the wine as much as I do.

“My passion for wine started at a young age,” says Robin McBride, co-founder and president of McBride Sisters Wine Company. “I remember trying to boil Welch’s grape juice in baby bottles under my bed! My sister and I always had a passion for wine that we wanted to share with the world in an industry that looked like us.”

The size of the US wine market is approximately USD 63.69 billion and the expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 6.8% (from 2022 to 2030). The sparkling wine class, my favorite, grows faster at 7.7%, driven by prosecco and champagne.

Enter McBride Sisters Wine Company, which the sisters founded in California in 2005, first as importers and then as winemakers. Still, the sparkling — and bottled — wine collection has taken the industry by storm in recent years.

Robin McBride and her sister Andrea McBride John founded their company in a diverse underrepresented industry. “One percent of all winemakers are black,” Phil Long, president of the African American Vintners Association, said in an interview with Wine Finder. “If you look at winemakers and brand owners, there are more than 50 overall, but if you look at African Americans, there are only a few dozen who are winemakers and brand owners.”

Image credit: McBride Sisters Wine Company

The McBride sisters ignited a movement to change that. “My sister and I are on a mission to change the industry, lead by example and empower the community,” says Robin McBride. “One glass of sweet wine at a time.”

Here are the three most important lessons McBride and her sister learned as they built America’s largest black- and women-owned wine company:

RELATED: “I’m not a diversity quota,” says the founder who’s disrupting the dessert category

Stop thinking that money solves everything

McBride has always been a problem solver. As a child, she loved to collect things and put them together. She remembers being asked a lot of questions. “I got on everyone’s nerves,” she says. “I was always on a mission to find the cause and find solutions.”

Now as co-founders, the sisters are always in problem-solving mode. In their journey to build the company, they faced a shortage of resources and a shortage of workers. The pandemic was another reminder that money doesn’t solve everything. “We can’t afford to pay to play in our industry. The other players are too big and they always outbid us,” McBride says. “During the pandemic, we had to create a way to engage our consumers. We created a free online wine school on Facebook and created in-house modules that didn’t cost us much of our time. Not only did we engage our community, but we grew it.” [by providing] Useful content.”

Related: This founder went to prison when he was 15 years old. That’s what led to the idea of ​​a company now backed by John Legend.

“Discrimination is a business killer.”

The sisters’ road to building their business was not easy. “There’s an immediate lack of credibility that you can feel from investors who doubt your success as a black female founder, because you have to be unusual,” says McBride. “Hundreds of questions come at you. Who owns the company? Who makes your wine? Do black women drink wine? Discrimination is a business killer.”

At first, an investor advised the sisters to find a white man as a partner to help them raise money. But the sisters did not give up; They will not be ignored. “We are great business leaders, and we know our consumers,” says McBride. “Eighty percent of wine purchases are made by women. And yes, black women drink wine, despite what some investors think.”

Today, McBride Sisters Wine Company employs 51% people of color and 93% women, including an all-female winemaking team.

Related: This Filipino-American founder is disrupting the beverage aisle by introducing new flavors to the crowded bubbly water market.

Celebrate and give back

In the year In 2019, the McBride sisters were invited to the Essence Festival, and were asked to join the mayor of New Orleans at the opening party. They decided to make a wine to commemorate the season and called it Black Girl Magic Riesling. They submitted less than 100 cases for the event, and the demand was great. The sisters were not prepared for how well received they would be.

“People really like the wine,” McBride says. “It was an opportunity for me and my sister to celebrate our culture and our community, to celebrate black women. Because for a long time the industry didn’t serve us as consumers, and it was important for us to create a line. Wine that could be enjoyed by everyone, for us as a community.”

The McBride sisters continue to push beyond all obstacles to provide their customers with wines that represent their culture, history, passions and celebrations. “This collection is inspired by and is meant to celebrate the amazing black women in our families, communities, and the people we celebrate,” McBride said. “It’s our chance to give back to the black women who continue to support us.”

Related: This baker was told not to speak Spanish by her co-workers, so she started her own cake company that values ​​employees as much as customers.