From Harlem to Sonoma, how Angela McCrae is working to change the face of the wine industry

In her quest to change the face of the wine industry, Angela McCrae moved from Harlem to Sonoma last year.

Dressed in a colorful poncho over a blue dress on a recent Friday, she also sported a chupalla-style hat that covered her headful of thin, black braids which she’d pulled back into a long ponytail. A pair of short boots that could weather the grit of a muddy vineyard completed her outfit.

An apprentice at Oakville’s Silver Oak, McCrae, who is Black, said she wrestled with culture shock when she arrived in Sonoma where “no one looked like me.”

Her apprenticeship is part of a yearlong program that is the brainchild of the Veraison Project, a nonprofit organization intent on making the beverage industry more diverse.

“I was in Harlem where the Harlem Renaissance was birthed,” McCrae said. “I was constantly around multi-cultural people, Black people from all over the world, whether it was Africa, West Africa, East Africa, the Caribbean, South America or the Dominican Republic. … I really had a tight community and square mileage in which I stayed.”

But when McCrae was accepted for the apprenticeship, she decided being uncomfortable was part of the experience.

“For me, I’ve always run toward it (being uncomfortable) because I know this is the right path for growth, development and change,” she said. “If I wanted to be a leader in Wine Country, I needed to be in Wine Country.”

McCrae’s calling

Driving up a steep, winding road to Pritchard Hill, widely considered the best grape growing area in Napa Valley, McCrae shared her story. She described the pivotal experience that led to her diversity, equity and inclusion work in the wine industry.

The apprentice was headed to the gathering she was hosting at OVID Napa Valley, which was acquired by the Duncan Family of Silver Oak in 2017. McCrae created the day-long event to highlight the apprenticeship program and to initiate a conversation about “re-imagining a more inclusive wine community.”

With a patchwork of vineyards alongside the winding road, McCrae explained that a trip to Africa in 2020 is what drew her to the wine industry. That’s when she crossed paths with Wendy Petersen, executive manager of the South African Wine Industry Transformation Unit.

“She was a visionary, creating change and opening opportunities,” McCrae said.

Inspired by Petersen, McCrae launched the media company and digital publication “Uncorked and Cultured” in 2020.

A community-driven platform and media company, according to its website, it connects people of color around the world through wine, wellness, culture and adventure. With a broad reach, McCrae’s personal and “Uncorked and Cultured” Instagram accounts have 12,000 followers.

McCrae also accepted the position of executive director of the Association of African American Vintners in 2022. The key focus of the trade organization is to advocate for equality and inclusion in the wine industry through education, community and financial resources.

“My vision and goal is to get resources to our members,” McCrae said. “Raising money and getting access. I realize it’s a hard mountain to climb.”

Asked how she has time for all of the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts she’s involved with, McCrae shrugged her shoulders and said, “None of it feels like work.

“Some people say your work should be your passion and most people don’t experience it but I do,” McCrae said. “My passion is at the intersection of creativity, advocacy and bringing people together.”

The apprenticeship

OVID was the perfect backdrop to talk about the apprenticeship program, McCrae explained, because the brand embraces experimentation and transformation.

The winery is named after Publius Ovidius Naso, the Roman poet whose most famous work was “Metamorphoses.” True to its credo, one of its bottlings is called “Experiment” and its 2021 California white wine is a blend of nine varietals, with the lion’s share rare grapes.

“The ethos of OVID is based on change, transition and metamorphosis, which to me is essentially what the 12-month apprenticeship program is doing for the apprentices,” McCrae explained. “It’s a way to change and transform into a new way of engaging in wine.”

Following the grape into the glass, the rotational program covers many departments within the company. They include viticulture, production, harvest, customer care, marketing, wholesale and hospitality.

McCrae is the third woman to go through the apprenticeship program at Silver Oak. The two other women who participated in the program in 2022 -- Courtney Guntz-Summers and Tahlia Suggs — were on hand to share their experiences.

Suggs, 25, said her aha moment happened while working in Silver Oak Cellars’ tasting room.

“A memorable moment that will forever stay with me is when people of color were visiting the tasting room,” she said. “They expressed sentiments like ‘I feel more comfortable having you as our tasting room host.’”

Their comments, Suggs explained, underscore the importance of diversity in the world of wine.

As for Guntz-Summers, 34, she shared her breakthrough story — how she wound up as an apprentice in Wine Country by being resourceful.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, she said she began her food odyssey as a child with an Easy Bake Oven, a Julia Child in the making.

During the pandemic, while others in the food industry were losing their jobs, Guntz-Summers developed a business as a private chef. That’s when she realized she wanted to learn more about how to pair wine with food. And when she heard about the apprenticeship opportunity at Silver Oak Cellars, she was determined to be a part of it.

Curiosity alone won’t get you where you want to go, Guntz-Summers said. Being nosy will. It’s what keeps you asking questions.

“You have to be nosy about life,” she said with a broad smile. “That’s how you get behind closed doors.”

Microaggressions

The conversation about re-imagining the wine industry broached the topic of microaggressions.

A type of microaggression, according to McCrae, is projecting a stereotype onto someone else that’s demeaning.

It is officially defined, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group, such as a racial or ethnic minority.

The term was first coined in the 1970s by Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce to describe subtle, everyday ways that people of color experience instances of prejudice from their white counterparts.

McCrae shared an experience in which a Black vintner was making wine in a custom crush facility and someone walked by and said, “I can smell the Obamacare on that wine.”

In another example that was mentioned a Black tasting room worker wanted to play music. Her co-worker assumed that because she is Black she wanted to play rap or hip-hop.

“People may be well-intentioned,” McCrae said, “but they’re unaware of the fact that what they’re saying is demeaning.”

Some microaggressions are blatant while others can be subtle, she said, adding that they all must be addressed if the wine industry is to become truly inclusive.

Realizing the dream of diversity

Later in the day, over lunch at Silver Oak in Oakville, other Black professionals weighed in on how to best diversify the wine industry.

Kelly Carter, formerly of Napa Valley’s Alpha Omega, said, “winery owners should put people of color in upper management positions.”

The director of communications at Alpha Omega from 2016 to 2023, Carter said the owners gave her tremendous exposure.

“The owners took me to Washington D.C. for a Wine Institute meeting in 2017,” she said. “They took me everywhere. They knew what they were doing.”

McCrae agreed with Carter, adding that the executives should mirror consumers across the board.

“I feel like the decision-makers, the people behind the glass, the bottles, should be representative of the people who are actually drinking the wine,” she said. “I feel like right now a lot of the marketing has been traditional, making it look like the only consumer is a 65-year-old white guy. But data has taught us, and pop culture has taught us, that so many more people are drinking wine.”

The expansive list, she said, includes the young, women and multicultural people.

What will it take for us to get there?

“People being comfortable with being uncomfortable,” McCrae said. “I feel it’s going to take that, people being okay with feeling uncomfortable, like getting outside of themselves and looking at the big picture. For them to consider what are the bigger goals and to be open to what that can look like. What possibilities can there be.”

You can reach wine writer Peg Melnik at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @pegmelnik.