Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Imagine, one day out of the blue, you get a call from your father. You two haven’t talked in years. He says you have a sister, but he doesn’t know where she is. But he wants you to find her. Also, he’s dying. OK, OK, I know that in a lot of Black families, this scenario isn’t that unusual, but it’s still a wild beginning to the creation of the largest Black-owned wine company in America: the McBride Sisters. The two sisters behind the brand — Robin and Andrea — are at the center of the next episode of “Masters of the Game.” It premieres on theGrioTV on Friday, Dec. 29 at 8 p.m. ET.
Robin grew up in Monterey, California, in wine country. Andrea, who’s nine years younger, grew up in New Zealand in wine country there. They grew up separately, unaware that the other existed until their father’s call. In 1999, a few years after that call, after he’d passed away, Andrea was visiting family in Alabama when Robin happened to call. The connection was made.
“When I found out she was in the states, I was like, I can’t not take this opportunity to meet my sister that I just found out exists in person. I want to do it right now,” Robin said. The next day they met at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
They felt a deep love from their first airport hug, and as they bonded, they realized they shared a love of wine. “We were going through the process of getting to know each other as women and sisters, and it was like, in bonding and then telling stories about what it was like where we grew up, and then, you know, I had an uncle who was a grape grower,” Andrea said. “Robin grew up around a lot of winemaking, families and agriculture, and it was just something that kind of just naturally kind of formed and happened.”
In 2005, they began making wine together. Today, their brand, the…
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