One of the best wine trends is the industry’s growing inclusiveness, encompassing everything from acceptance of new varietals to more diversity of ownership. Throughout the wine world, Black-owned wineries are enjoying their biggest growth period ever. Membership in The Association of African American Vintners grew from about 50 winemakers in 2019 to over 200 today. However, with less than one percent of U.S. wineries Black-owned, African Americans are still severely underrepresented in the wine industry.

“Honestly, it’s not an industry a lot of people of color gravitate towards,” said Lloyd Davis, owner of Corner 103 in Sonoma. “It’s a challenging field on a number of fronts. It takes a lot of money to get into the wine business, and it’s saturated with producers.”

While established wine regions like Napa Valley can be challenging for new winemakers because of the cost of land, California’s most well-known Wine Country, along with its neighbor, Sonoma County, boasts a variety of Black-owned wineries waiting for wine lovers to discover.

Notable Black-Owned Wineries in Napa

Brown Estate

Established in 1996, the family-owned Brown Estate was Napa Valley’s first Black-owned winery. Created by Dr. Bassett and Marcela Brown, the winery is now in the hands of their children, David, Deenen, and Coral. Known for its Zinfandels that showcase the diversity of terroir in Napa, Brown Estate has welcomed wine enthusiasts to its downtown Napa tasting room since 2017.

In 2018 it launched its sister brand, House of Brown, a fun-loving label led by Deneen, designed to encourage and welcome new wine drinkers to the family. House of Brown is woman-led and the wines are regeneratively farmed, certified sustainable, and vegan-friendly. Even better, they clock in around $20 a bottle.

Tastings: Starting at $50
Visit: 1005 Coombs Street, Napa, CA 94559
Contact: (707) 963-2435

Okapi Wines

Named for Africa’s elusive okapi, a cross between a giraffe and a zebra, Okapi Wines are exotic, imaginative artisanal wines conceived by founder Dan Johnson. Johnson’s passion for wine was stoked while handling a legal matter for a winery.

Together with his wife Kim, he transformed a walnut orchard in Napa Valley into a vineyard in 2006 and released their first vintage, a Cabernet Sauvignon in 2010. The award-winning wines are crafted with a nod to sustainability and a low-intervention philosophy. Don’t miss the multiple award-winning Okapi Cabernet Sauvignon. A portion of the winery’s profits are donated to help the Okapi at the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tastings: Starting at $95
Visit: Tastings held at The Caves at Soda Canyon, 2275 Soda Canyon Road, Napa, CA 94558
Contact: (707) 255-8117

J. Moss

James Moss caught the wine bug early working as a distributor in Texas. In the late 1990s, he followed his passion to California and learned the intricacies of making wine. Fun fact, he made his first wine for his wedding. In 2000 he released his first vintage, a Merlot, and hasn’t looked back since. J. Moss estate-grown wines are handcrafted and vinified by single vineyard blocks and barrel lots. The full-bodied wines are intense, elegant, and made to age.

With his wife Janet and son Westley, J. Moss is a true family venture. Janet spent a decade at Domaine Carneros learning all aspects of the winemaking business.

Tastings: Starting at $45
Visit: 901B Enterprise Way, Napa, CA 94558
Contact: (707) 647-3388

Wade Cellars

After a 16-year career and three championship rings with the Miami Heat, Dwayne Wade is pursuing another of his passions—wine. The former point guard and Napa Cab lover partners with Jayson Pahlmeyer to bring an affordable and accessible portfolio of wines with DWade style to wine lovers across the globe.

His collection includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc, and Rosé. Wade is firmly in the camp that the price of a bottle doesn’t equate to the quality of the wine. His Three by Wade Cabernet Sauvignon will only set you back $25. Wade Cellars wines are available online and at select retailers nationwide.

Tastings: Not offered; Visit website to shop wines.

LVE Wines

For singer John Legend, wine and music share the ability to bring people together. While the crooner is best known for his romantic ballads, for over a decade, he’s teamed up with Raymond Vineyards to bring wine enthusiasts soulful Cabernet Sauvignons, Chardonnays, and Rosé.

Working with owner Jean-Charles Boisset and the winemaking team at Raymond, Legend was hands-on, developing his wines’ flavor profiles and style. The result is elegant, subtle wines that Legend says he likes to drink and share with friends.

LVE’s latest launch is La Vie, a French still and sparkling Rosé served up in cans, clearly created to draw younger consumers to the brand. LVE Wines are available online and in select retail locations throughout the country.

Tastings: Not offered; Visit website to shop wines.

Black-owned Sonoma Wineries

Corner 103

Owner Lloyd Davis went from finances to farming when he left his hedge fund in New York for the wine world in Sonoma. Initially, he revitalized a floundering winery and since 2014 has owned Corner 103. The small winery, located on a corner of the Sonoma Square, is focused on education and providing experiences for his guests.

“People are intimidated by wine and they defer to their wine-snob friends to figure out what’s good,” said Davis. “We don’t do this with anything else. You don’t ask a friend if you like prime rib! I wanted to create a space where everyone is a wine expert because you know what you like and what you don’t.”

Corner 103 produces a variety of small-lot wines for people to explore their palate, including its signature Corner Cuvee, a blend of four varietals that changes each vintage.

Tastings: Starting at $30
Visit: 103 Napa Street, Sonoma, CA 95476
Contact: (707) 931-6141

Fog Crest Vineyard

Rosalind Manoogian is a wine pioneer founding Sonoma County’s first Black woman-owned and operated winery, Fog Crest Vineyard. In the late 1990s, she and her husband, James, transformed a 30-acre apple orchard into Fog Crest Vineyard. Drawing on her Stanford business education and passion for wine, Manoogian grew her winery from a grape supplier to a producer of finely crafted hand-harvested Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays that reflect the Russian River terroir.

Today visitors can taste the fruits of Manoogian’s labor at the winery’s tasting room perched atop Laguna de Santa Rosa. From this enviable position, visitors can drink in some of the best views of Sonoma County.

Tastings: Starting at $30
Visit: 7606 Occidental Road, Sebastopol, CA 95472
Contact: (707) 829-2006

Bodkin Wines

Cheers to the ingenuity of self-taught winemaker Chris Christensen to shake up the sparkling wine world with America’s first Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc in 2012. It’s no surprise that the Stanford grad, who worked in several winery labs after graduation, would concoct a wild new bubbly for his brand, Bodkin Wines.

Today, the Sebastopol-based Christensen quenches wine lovers’ thirst for high-acid, low-alcohol wines. Don’t miss the bubbly Sauv Blanc and his light-skinned Zinfandel that bridges the divide between deep Rosé and light red. Christensen is motivated by the chase of perfection and he’s coming close, with the majority of his high-quality wines releasing to 90 points and more.

Tastings: Not offered; Visit website to shop wines.

Ashanta Wines

Fifth-generation winemaker Chenoa Ashton-Lewis and her partner Will Basanta are leading the natural, low-intervention wine movement in Sonoma County. Ashanta Wines, named for a combination of the founder’s two last names, and a form of “thank you” in Ghanaian, is known for its Pet-Nats, skin-contact whites, field blends, and fruit co-ferments like Wild Elderberry and French Colombard.

Ashanta Wines are wildly different than most other wines in the region. During fermentation, the winemakers add nothing to the grapes—no yeast, acid, water, preservatives, or nutrients. This is as natural as winemaking gets.

Ashanta Wines sources grapes from its 50-year-old vineyard, and works with other family-operated vineyards. Additionally, the owners often forage for wild fruit in the wilderness. Ashton-Lewis and Basanta found the elderberry in their Brutal!!! Wine on a backcountry hike in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Tastings: Not offered; Visit website to shop wines.

Vision Cellars

No story on black-owned wineries in California would be complete without Mac McDonald’s Vision Cellars. McDonald has championed Black winemakers and African American winery owners throughout his storied career. In 2002, he founded the Association of African American Viticulturists to create a more inclusive wine industry by providing a support network for Black wine professionals.

McDonald describes himself as the son of an East Texas moonshiner. He fell in love with wine after tasting a Burgundy at the tender age of 12 and decided then and there to be a winemaker. After moving to California, he immersed himself in the wine industry, ultimately purchasing Vision Cellars in Sonoma County in the mid-1990s, naming it Vision because he finally realized his vision of being a winemaker. The winery’s first bottling was a 1997 Pinot Noir. The winery still specializes in Pinot Noir today.

Tastings: Not offered; Visit website to shop wines.

The Future of Black-owned Wineries

In 2023, Dr. Monique Bell published Terroir Noir: 2023 Study of Black Wine Entrepreneurs, a follow-up study to her 2020 report analyzing Black wine business owners. Her research revealed that access to capital was the number one barrier to success, followed by distribution challenges.

Nearly half of the respondents were neutral or disagreed that the wine industry is taking meaningful action to increase inclusion for Black wine owners, consumers, or wine professionals, although 65 percent agreed that their businesses benefited from DEI initiatives. Eighty percent of wine owners were motivated to start their wine business in part to change the current situation for the better.

As the wine industry works to become more inclusive, consumers can play a part by choosing to try the wine from these artisanal Black-owned wine labels when in Napa and Sonoma, or shopping for new wines to explore at home.