We came of age, politically, in the late Sixties so it riles us to read references to the Civil Rights Movement as something that has ended. Do women feel they can proclaim they’re where they want to be, do a mic drop and announce, “I’m out?” We don’t think so. Our country is still evolving toward that more perfect union, we hope, but it takes continuous, concentrated effort.
This year, as we brace for elections and other things incalculable, our wine world continues trying to become more representative of the world. Appealing to Black and brown people and others who have been historically underrepresented is imperative as boomers, mostly white who have long supported the industry, grow more sensitive to the rising cost of everything on their fixed budgets. As you know, a lot of this attention to inequality, and inclusion and diversity in many institutions and industries, can be traced to the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
“Diversity, equity and inclusivity. I hate those words together. That’s a program, that’s a seminar for 30 minutes you get from your corporation,” said Ikimi Dubose-Woodson. She’s executive director of The Roots Fund, TRF, a nonprofit whose mission is to help Black, indigenous and people of color and other underrepresented people enter or rise in the wine industry, and soon, the spirits industry. It provides financial support, wine and business education, mentoring and job placement. “I want to work with people who want to work, not have meetings, and I want to do real work and create real change and that’s the only thing I want to talk about. While I’m doing this for my people, the education and awareness piece is for everyone.”
Dubose-Woodson, a veteran hospitality executive, founded The Roots Fund in 2020 with Carlton McCoy, a master sommelier and CEO of Napa-based Lawrence Wine Estates, which owns wineries and a négociant business; and Tahiirah Habibi, a veteran sommelier and founder of the Atlanta-based Hue Society, whose goal tracks that of The Roots Fund. In addition to Dubose-Woodson and McCoy, other board members include Jeremy Seysses, whose family owns Burgundy producer Domaine Dujac; and Santosh Varghese, director of Client Services at Fida Wine, the direct-to-consumer arm of wine importer Vintus.
(Roots Fund Founders Tahiirah Habibi, Carlton McCoy Jr., and Ikimi Dubose-Woodson)
The Roots Fund celebrates its fourth anniversary on July 23 and over that time, 226 scholars have gone through its programs, earning degrees from the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon and certifications like the Wine & Spirits Education Trust certification, a must-have for many jobs in the industry, as well as work in various jobs from vines to wines. It has raised more than $2 million to make all that and various other initiatives happen like the annual Fiesta De La Vid, an annual family event in Napa that celebrates wine industry workers, with a special focus on Hispanic winemakers and those who work with them. Grand Cru Selections, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant and Brooklyn Sports Entertainment are its largest financial donors and contributors of internships, education support and jobs. Zachy’s partners with the fund for its annual auction, happening this year on Oct. 28.
It’s painful but there’s no doubting that a lot of diversity, equity and inclusion talk was just that, talk. Every day it seems there’s news about rollbacks on that front, which translates to dwindling resources to support those efforts.
“People and institutions had the best intentions. Everyone wants to help until they realize the full scope of what is needed,” Dubose-Woodson said.
“People of color don’t need just money. Money is a part of it. They need support. If you tell me you’re going give me a million dollars to become a winemaker and walk away from me without a road map to how to become a winemaker, I’m going to see that million dollars, and I’ve never seen that amount of money before in my bank account, in my life, and I’m going to go crazy. I may try to buy a vineyard not realizing that million is a drop in the bucket when it comes to purchasing a vineyard,” Dubose-Woodson told us.
So education and internships and professionals willing to mentor and hire are vital. TRF strives to make sure individuals and companies are making wise investments in those on the receiving end, as it tries to help those dreamers' dreams come true.
“I get letters all the time from people who say, ‘Oh, I just need money for this.’ Well that’s not how we work. I have to see the whole path for me to invest but when I invest in you that comes with accountability. You don’t get a day off from telling me what’s going on. You’re not working great? We’re going to get you a job where we focus on what your career looks like. You’re going to need to check in every two weeks on video and I don’t want to see you laying in bed in your pajamas. Show me the best impression of yourself. You’re building your brand. You’re selling yourself. I’m not a hand holder. I’m not,” she said.
The program’s star is Daren Clark, who had been a chef in a restaurant. When he heard about TRF, he direct-messaged McCoy and briefly lived with him in Napa when the young organization was trying to figure out housing in expensive Napa Valley, an ongoing challenge. Clark was among the first scholars in the Rooted in France program, which puts college graduates with professional work experience through the Burgundy School of Wine & Spirits Business’s Master’s Degree programs. The fund dropped its requirement that the graduating students or alumni be from a Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Dubose-Woodson said, to broaden its reach. It continues its outreach to HBCUs in another program because many have agriculture programs that can bridge to winemaking and other industry jobs. Although classes at the Burgundy school are taught in English, the fund provides tutoring in French. Donae Burston, who has kicked down doors with his La Fête Wine Company’s rosé, helps cover scholars’ rent and travel around France, Dubose-Woodson said. When Burston was featured in May on CNN’s Champions for Change program, he said that he was thrilled about the fund’s mission because only one percent of U.S. wineries have a Black owner or winemaker. With WineAmerica, an advocacy group, estimating that the wine industry boosted the U.S. economy by $276 billion in 2022, that’s a lot of economic opportunity people of color are largely missing out on. Likewise, they represent huge buying power that’s too often untapped.
(Daren Clark)
Véronique Boss-Drouhin of Domaine Drouhin Oregon and Maison Joseph Drouhin in Burgundy, who was introduced to TRF by her friend, Seysses, hired Clark.
“First we talked about having a harvest stagiaire [intern] in France, but then it worked out last year to hire a scholar for the Oregon crush, and this was great --so great that the employee is now a full-time member of the team.”
She and David Millman, Domaine Drouhin's President, went to New York for a Roots Fund charity event, she wrote us. “A wonderful couple bought the lot we offered that included a trip to Burgundy. It happens that I just welcomed them in Beaune. I feel I made new friends, thanks to The Roots Fund!”
Balkis Johnson is another standout, the first scholar in the Rooted in Champagne program. She works for Ruinart as a hospitality associate.
We met Aamira Garba, founder and maker of LoveLee Wines, at a tasting in 2021 of wines by Black-owned winemakers at Habibi’s annual Wine & Culture Fest in Atlanta, where Dottie was honored. Habibi had recommended Garba, who started her custom-crush brand in 2016, as a scholar in 2020. After two interviews, the New Jersey resident was accepted. “I was able to get my Level 3 WSET certification thanks to The Roots Fund,” Garba wrote us. “Since then I’ve been mentored, and they've provided invaluable resources to help me grow my brand.”
(Aamira Garba)
There are a growing number of organizations working to make the wine industry more inclusive and equitable. Last month, Napa-based Wine Unify announced that Total Wine & More, the nation’s largest independent retailer of fine wine, spirits and beer, will for three years help provide support for newcomers to wine and rising wine professionals under Wine Unify’s umbrella. Since its inception, also in 2020, Wine Unify has made it possible for 180 people to pursue WSET certifications. Alicia Towns Franken, a wine and hospitality industry veteran, is the organization’s executive director. Its founders are DLynn Proctor, noted sommelier and marketing director of Fantesca Estate; and Masters of Wine Mary Margaret McCamic and Martin Reyes.
Some young people emerging in wine have benefitted from more than one of these programs. We connected with Jamele Favorite, marketing manager of Modales Wines in Michigan, after he sent us its delicious Nouveau of Zweigelt. Favorite and a friend have a podcast, Music in a Bottle. He was awarded Wine Unify’s Welcome Award for WSET Level 1 certification in 2020 and is now a Wine Unify Ambassador. It is funding his Level 3 WSET. Wanting to work a harvest, he applied to TRF and was hired as a harvest intern at Heitz Cellar, part of Lawrence Estate. The fund also underwrote his Level 2 WSET certification. The executive directors of both organizations have been on his podcast.
Changing the industry at every level is a community effort. Housing the scholars working internships and harvests is expensive. In Napa, where scholars are put up three to a house, a few local homeowners have cut their usual tourist rate in half and for that she's grateful, Dubose-Woodson said, adding that she hopes others follow. Some have loaned them cars so they can get to work or rented them at reasonable rates. For wine law expertise, the fund calls Owen Dallmeyer in Napa and is looking for lawyers in other regions, she said.
(Burgundy producer Dominique Lafon with Rooted in France scholars Deveraux Mackey and Taylor Beverly)
This year, Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival partnered with TRF for sommelier service at its annual fundraising event. There’s Rooted in Lodi, and many winery supporters all over California, and in New York’s Finger Lakes. The program will send its first full-ride scholarship student to Washington State’s wine program this year, thanks to fundraising by some NBA stars in the wine world. TRF contributes to Hispanics in Wine and Our Legacy Harvested in Oregon, among other organizations.
Taking an entrepreneurial turn, TRF is planning to open by the end of this year its own school offering WSET Levels 1 and 2 spirits certification “exclusively for organizations that are in the wine and spirits space to have an affordable option for certification. We’ll be offering in-person and online classes to restaurant groups,” Dubose-Woodson said.
(While we have never seen Dubose-Woodson literally twist anyone’s arms, she is exceedingly difficult to say no to. We initially sought to interview her about a year ago, suggesting a casual place in Manhattan. We ended up without that interview at a fancy place in Brooklyn that the fund sprung for, an expression of gratitude, she said, for our writing over the years. This interview was finally conducted at our expense at an Upper West Side restaurant.)
She’s formidable. When she was a teenager and had left home, she won a scholarship from the Careers Through Culinary Arts Program, where she met McCoy. Then, she said, at 21, she became the youngest food and beverage manager ever for Marriott International hotels. In 2020, she was responsible for feeding members of Congress and their staff, as head chef for the House of Representatives’ Rayburn Building. In that role, she worked with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fierce advocate for green and sustainable practices like cooking locally sourced products and using biodegradable utensils. She got a masters degree in Nonprofit Management. When the pandemic hit and restaurants started closing, she said, she began consulting restaurants on how to pivot from the now-banned indoor eating to take-out in sustainable packaging. With her bustling hospitality consultancy, iamshef, doing well, she took on the role of TRF’s executive director.
“I’m making an investment in this industry to last forever,” Dubose-Woodson said.
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher conceived and wrote The Wall Street Journal's wine column, "Tastings," from 1998 to 2010. Dorothy and John have been tasting and studying wine since 1973. In 2020, the University of California at Davis added their papers to the Warren Winiarski Wine Writers Collection in its library, which also includes the work of Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. Dottie has had a distinguished career in journalism as a reporter, editor, columnist and editorial writer at The Miami Herald, The New York Times, and at The Journal. John was Page One Editor of The Journal, City Editor of The Miami Herald and a senior editor at Bloomberg News. They are well-known from their books and many television appearances, especially on Martha Stewart's show, and as the creators of the annual, international "Open That Bottle Night" celebration of wine and friendship. The first bottle they shared was André Cold Duck. They have two daughters.
