Monthly Archives: June 2022
Meet Ross Burtwell, executive chef and owner of Cabernet Grill in Fredericksburg, Texas, and the grill’s wine director, Elizabeth Rodriguez Burtwell and his wife, Mariana, bought the Cabernet Grill in 2002 and, just four years later, decided to replace the international wine menu with an all-Texas list.
Alberto Graci grew up experiencing winemaking through his grandfather who had made wine from family vineyards in central Sicily. He was working as an investment banker in Milan when the death of his grandfather brought him back to Sicily and to wine.
June 03, 2022We were at the Association of African American Vintners’ 20th anniversary celebration in Oakland, Napa and Sonoma. Twenty years ago, three vintners – Edward Lee “Mac” McDonald, Vance Sharp and Dr. Ernest Bates – came together as the first members of an audacious undertaking, an association of Black winemakers. Audacious because at the time, Black faces were rare throughout the global wine industry. Although the number of Black people in the wine world is growing, from vineyard workers to those who make it and who sell it, of the more than 11,000 wineries in the U.S., fewer than one percent are owned by Black people or have a Black winemaker.
