Is the Wine Industry Racist?

There is a handful of Black-owned wineries in California. For that matter there isn't a whole lot of Mexican-American owned ones either even though there are many Hispanic people employed by wineries (mostly in the field and the cellar).

You can see a list of Black-owned wineries from Wine Enthusiast.

So people have been wondering about various businesses and their percentage of minorities working, owning, or on the board of directors. My experience in the wine industry is from the consumer side and visitation so who do I see coming in to taste? Yes, it's predominately white with a good part Asian-American probably as there are so many in the Bay Area. But Blacks or Hispanics? Not so much. Is it a racist thing? Nope, it's pretty much economics that are keeping people out. If you are in the lower part of the economic class whether you're white, black, brown, yellow, or green you don't participate in luxury goods like $20-up wine. And the truth about the American society is minorities overall don't have the income level of whites.

So I don't believe the wine biz is racist per se. This lack of consumer participation is why you don't often see minorities get into the wine business whether it's as a sommelier, winery tour guide, winemaker, or winery owner. Especially as a winery owner as that takes a ton of money or a family with a long history in the wine business that already owns land. Wine is an agricultural industry and while you see lots of Hispanics at the farming and production level Black people in farming seems to be rare, at least in the western states.

The thing is not all Blacks or Hispanics or any other group is all poor and not interested in wine. There is definitely a part of the market that's not getting its due. If you look at wine ads, especially print ads, they haven't changed much in decades as they still portray what looks like upper-class white people (none are ugly either, BTW). The industry was at one time tailored to the upper crust and it hasn't totally lost that feeling.

The hard fact is other than field workers the vast majority of people are white. Like any industry the wine biz would be better off with a cross-representation of all Americans.

One to try: There are a handful of Black-owned wineries in the Sonoma/Napa area, but Brown Estate seems like the most interesting in that the land has been in the family for 40 years and now the kids are making wine. I have not tried the wines.