As the work began, so did their reality as two fierce, female and forward-thinking leaders in an industry historically defined by tradition and gender. I was at home watching cartoons when the phone rang and a voice said, Hey, Andrea, this is your dad. And he told me I had a sister, Andrea recalled. [13] In December 2020, Washington Post wine columnist Dave McIntyre recommended the Black Girl Magic Sparkling Brut as "delicious". A couple years following their first meeting, Robin moved back to California to spend more time with Andra who had just started college there, and the rest came naturally. The McBride sisters and their staff make the wines at custom crush facilities in California and New Zealand. Our experience when we first started, our credibility was challenged a lot. Older sister Robin McBride was raised in Monterey, Calif., by her mother, Karen. House of Pure Vin is a fantastic wine tasting place and shop and we have a lot of friends in Detroit. We describe our signature style as old world style with new world finesse. The McBride Sisters Collection wines are offered across the United States and New Zealand. At the age of six, she was raised by her uncle and a foster family after her mother died of breast cancer. But, on most days you can usually find Andrea sipping the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Robin enjoying the Central Coast Red Blend, both are amazing expressions of our hometowns. "The phone rang, and I picked it up, and the person on the other end of the phone, said, 'Hey, Andra, it's your dad.' "So I didn't know I was going to be talking to my sister as soon as I make the initial phone call. The story of the McBride sisters is nothing like anything you've ever heard of before in the wine industry. Fluker: What is your favorite wine from the McBride Sisters collection and why? They had a dream . Robin (right) andAndra McBride (left) are teaching others what they've learned about the wine industry as sister co-founders of a booming wine company. Birth City: Sharon. The sisters started small. Birth State: Kansas. [17] As of December 2020, McBride Sisters wines were sold at select Target retail stores,[4] and was also marketed nationally at Walmart and Kroger, in addition to being sold direct through the company web site.[14]. In an industry dominated by men, they are young minority women. In honor of their brand-newTruveros launcha 2015 Grenache ros from the Paso Robles region of Californiawe spoke with the sisters on drinking pink, food pairings,and the ethos of their sisterly wine labels. Robin McBride and Andra McBride John grew up on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean, Robin in Marlborough, New Zealand and Andra in Monterey, Calif. Name: Martina McBride. Quality and quantity! And for that, they are both grateful to a father they never really knew. Raise your hand if you would like some backstory behind the SHE CAN can designs! Birth Country: United States. Where Will Wine Take You? The sisters shared a biological father, Kelly McBride, whom they had had little contact with while growing up. 2023 www.freep.com. Their wines range from $16.99 to$19.99. Fluker: What do you envision for McBride Sisters wine for the next 3-5 years? There is always something more to experience and learn about wine so were constantly trying to educate ourselves and perfect our skills! This one is fresh, lifted and beautifully aromatic, with lemon blossom, juicy green apple and hints of crushed rock on the nose. Andra McBride was a 16 year old living in foster care in New Zealand when she got a phone call from her biological dad in Alabama. They did pretty well until 2008 when economic woes hit the country. This is a BETA experience. Today, more than 13 years from their entrepreneurial start in the wine industry, the sisters have worked to bring wine lovers the best of both worlds with their third collection, The McBride Sisters Collection. If youve ever seen Robin and Andra in a room together, as I was fortunate enough to mere weeks before the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns, theres no doubt that the women are related. [6] In 2010, they founded EcoLove, a brand focused on sustainable wines, sourced from vineyards throughout New Zealand. Meaning, all those people have to buy the idea, granting access to the next in line, until the product finally makes it to shelves, where the profit can be made. McBride Sisters: We united in 1999 and it became clear to us that despite the fact that we grew up on opposite sides of the world we shared an appreciation for wine and were closely tied to the wine regions that we grew up in. He told her he was dying of cancer and wanted to do one last. Expect a Gamay and a Pinot Noir from New Zealands Central Otago region to join the Reserve tier soon. By the time the two of us met, our father had passed away. Sauvignon Blanc is dedicated to Andra's mums (birth mother and foster mother) so their initials are by the lioness (P.J. Join The Zoe Reports exclusive email list for the latest trends, shopping guides, celebrity style, and more. These values show up not only in the wines they make but in all facets of their company. However, they have all been facing different challenges. Now, the company offers products across the United States and New Zealand and raked in over $5.5 million in sales for fiscal year 2020, according to Nielsen data cited by Wine Spectator. After meeting in 1999, their curiosity for wine became a true passion as the sisters began a wine import business, importing unique New Zealand wines into the US Market. We bought some wine and had 120 days to pay it back. . The wine event is open to the public and the sisters will be there to sign bottles of wine. We were completely unaware of one another growing up, as I had moved back to my mother's native home in Marlborough, New Zealand when I was very young, and Robin stayed with her mother in Monterey, California. Black Girl Magic has always been synonymous with our culture and consumers love and appreciate that, Andra tells TZR. Both women were born in Los Angeles, but Andrea McBride spent much of her childhood in Marlborough, New Zealand, first with her mother, Pauline, who passed away, and then with a foster family. The two shared the same father but different mothers, and werent aware they had a sisterly half until their father and other family members helped to unite them through an endless trail of handwritten letters and phone calls lasting five years. Both sisters will tell you that they each take an equal share of the responsibilities. We definitely do look like sisters., She added that they soon discovered they had grown up in similar places, small places agricultural communities with up-and-coming wine regions.. There's a lot of dynasties in wine. And as I'm walking and thinking, I'm realizing that the reflection isn't moving as I'm walking. It was several years later, in 1999, when Robin, 26 at the time, opened a letter from her fathers sister asking her to call. Robin called the enclosed number, coincidentally, during Andra's time in Alabama. And a hint of roundness speaks of the effect of a restrained, 16 percent new French oak. Half-sisters Robin and Andra launched their California wine company, the McBride . The sisters were born to different mothers, both in Los Angeles. Gender: Female. We started to see we were not like the average wine makers. As luck would have it, Andrea was visiting from New Zealand and sitting next to her aunt when Robin called. Please enjoy responsibly! From that aunt, who lived in Georgia, she learned both about her fathers death and about the existence of her 16-year-old sister. We try to be in tune with nature doing things like planting cover crops that attract beneficial insects and watching the amount of water we use, she said. Before he died in 1996, he asked his family to find and connect his two daughters. "We had these dreams and had we not met, we probably wouldn't be in the wine industry, but we kinda felt like the stars lined up," Andra said. Robin had launched her journey first, having decamped Los Angeles with her mother, embarking on a post-divorce road trip up Pacific Coast Highway and landing in Monterey. You have to have an extreme case of optimism and thick skin to be successful in this business. Contact Susan Selasky: 313-222-6872 or sselasy@freepress.com. There, she grew up among the vineyards and winemakers of the Santa Lucia Highlands, and was entirely caught up in the vision. The Sisters brought their wines together under the same label with two lionesses and a peacock. She was placed with a foster family at the age of 6. What has been the most challenging and rewarding parts of owning your own wine distribution company? James stated, "I asked if I was black or white. "Meet the Sisters Behind One of the Wine Industry's Most Exciting Companies", "How This Sister Duo Became Trailblazers Within The Wine Industry", "Black Creators: The McBride Sisters Embark On A New Chapter", "20 Black-Owned Businesses That Will Have Something for Everyone on Your Holiday Shopping List", "Black-owned wineries are making their mark in Northern California", "Black Winemakers: A true rarity in the wine world", "Long-lost sisters run female-dominated wine company - CBS News", "Meet the Long-Lost Sisters Making Wine for Women", "Five wines from Black-owned wineries, in one flight", "This sauvignon blanc tastes like a splurge, but doesn't cost like one", "Fill Your Glass With Brands That Give Back: When you give a bottle of these spirits and wine, you give twice", "Black winemakers are climbing up the vine", McBride Sisters Wine Company (official website), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=McBride_Sisters&oldid=1113985187, Black-owned companies of the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 October 2022, at 06:11. In 2005, the sisters found themselves together in California, fueled by a shared passion for all things wine, wine-making and a desire to shake up the industry with a blend of old-world elegance and new-world finesse. Over time, McBride Sisters has grown into what is not only the largest Black-owned wine company in the United States, but one of the most inclusive, accessible, socially aware and sustainable. We've decided to honor our mothers in the packaging for the SHE CAN line. / CBS News. Two wines hail from New Zealand, the Sauvignon Blanc, and Sparkling Brut Ros, and two wines from Californias Central Coast, the crisp Chardonnay, and Red Blend, not to mention their Black Girl Magic California Riesling limited exclusive collection. You learn a lot about wine just by tasting so we first started educating ourselves by visiting wineries and tasting lots and lots of wines to refine our palettes and noses. Now we want to make the kind of wine we fell in love with.. Robin: Overlooking to rocky coast of Monterey Bay. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. They initially settled on the idea of importing and selling wines from New Zealand to restaurants throughout California, a concept they pivoted and grew into the McBride Sisters collection that exists today. What do you think about the current Rose trend? We still don't see a lot of women, a lot of people of color," Andra said. " Ros is an incredibly versatile wine and really easy to pair with a number of different foods. [12] The most popular set is a trio of Black Girl Magic wine featuring bottles of riesling, zinfandel, and ros. Through their core values: sustainability, empowerment, innovation, and community, the McBride sisters were able to curate a unique wine experience for their customers for more than 13 years. From the time we met and when Andrea moved to California to go to USC, thats the time we got to know each other. Launched in 2019, the SHECAN Fund provided support for a select number of Black-woman owned businesses across all industries hit the hardest by the pandemic in 2020, and this year, the fund will focus on professional development for women in the traditionally male-dominated fields of wine and spirits, hospitality, and finance. And eventually, they decided to start their own wine company together. These Pretty Cocktails Will Impress At Your Next Dinner Party, 9 Whiskey Cocktails That Go Beyond The Classic Old Fashioned, The IKEA X Marimekko Collab Is Inspired By Nordic Self-Care Rituals. What is 'North To Home' all about. The sisters shared a biological father, Kelly McBride, whom they had had little contact with while growing up. Its about getting the necessary attention from consumers and wine distributors alike to showcase how important representation is in the wine industry and how important accessibility is to wine education for all., Young wine drinkers and wine lovers of color are often overlooked by major wine brands, who have historically positioned wine, whether through events, marketing and messaging, to an older, white consumer. Andra and Robin grew up on separate continents, each one believing they were an only child. And the farming she describes is sustainable, the wines made with minimal intervention, designed to showcase the place. They were in touch with Andra, but had no idea where Robin lived. We Googled the top 100 restaurants in California and started knocking on doors., They were more or less clueless, she admits. Through their core values: sustainability,. Better grapes make better wine. Andra McBride and her sister, Robin McBride, are the founders and owners of the largest Black-owned wine company in the United States, The McBride Sisters Wine Company, which topped $5 million . Its a such a versatile wine because you can drink it year-round. After all, Google really wasnt a thing when the search began in 1994. Sign up today and save 15% on your first purchase! McBride Sisters: We are focused on making wines that are both accessible and that express each of the places we grew up in. IE 11 is not supported. Andra McBride: We share the same father, but were raised separately by different mothers. . Subscribe to RR1 Live+ for exclusive virtual events all year long (at least 1 per month), conversations with Robb Report editors, special perks, and more. They were all just really focused on helping to try and find Robin.". Robin and Andra McBride, founders of McBride Sisters Wines, are the first African-American sister duo to found and establish a wine company. We didnt even know about service hours and would show up at a restaurant at lunchtime, not knowing that the sommelier only tastes wines at certain times..