Table Wine/Maison Noir
Table Wine's BIPOC producer special (left); André Hueston Mack of Maison Noir (right).
The scarcity of women in winemaking and the wine industry has long been on Molly Moran’s mind. “The industry is often white men with money,” says Moran, who owns Table Wine, the wine shop and tasting room on Atwood Avenue.
After an in-store event (several years ago, pre-COVID) hosted by Sabrina Madison, founder of The Progress Center for Black Women, Moran started thinking about the overall lack of diversity in the business. Since then, she’s also been seeking out wines from Black winemakers and Black-owned wineries to stock at Table Wine.
“At first, there was just one Black-owned winery distributing in Wisconsin,” says Moran. But over the last year, several more were added, so now there are usually four or five available and being distributed in the state. There are, however, far more Black wineries in the United States than that; a 2020 article in Wine Enthusiast magazine lists around 50.
Moran says it’s important, as a white business owner, to support products from winemakers of color. “It’s important to show them there is a demand. Otherwise they go into a market, there’s no interest, and they back out of the market and I have to tell customers they need to go to Chicago to buy this product. I feel like we need to show up for [BIPOC producers], and prove there is a market here.”
Loosely in conjunction with Black History Month, Moran is highlighting Black producers in her February “BIPOC producer pack” special featuring three wineries: Where's Linus?, McBride Sisters and Maison Noir.
There’s nothing that tastes different about wines made by Black winemakers, of course, but often the marketing strays from traditional, striving to create a sense of accessibility.
Maison Noir is the Black-owned winery that has been in Wisconsin the longest, says Moran. Owner and winemaker André Hueston Mack has a background in business and is a former sommelier; his winery is in Oregon. Moran is featuring his “In Sheep’s Clothing” cabernet sauvignon. Maison Noir also has a large apparel section that draws on skateboarder and hip-hop fashion to help market its wines.
Where’s Linus? sauvignon blanc is made by Chris Christensen, a Black winemaker (he does not own the winery) in Northern California. This is also a natural wine, says Moran — “a hands-off, back-to-the-earth approach” that makes the wine more of a niche product.
McBride Sisters is the rare Black woman-owned winery, operated by half-sisters, one raised in New Zealand and one in California. When they finally met as young adults, they discovered a shared interest in wine. Table Wine is featuring the McBride Sisters’ sparkling brut rosé.
Due to COVID-19, Table Wine’s bar is closed. The shop has online ordering and curbside pickup; “brief walk-in visits are allowed, but no in-store browsing is available,” according to the Table Wine website, and masks are required.
