“Break the Rules. Drink the Wine.”- Robin & Andréa McBride
Robin McBride, left, and Andréa McBride John learned from winemakers and grapegrowers as they started their company as a boutique import firm. (Courtesy McBride Sisters Collection)
Sisters Robin and Andréa McBride grew up half a world away from one another between Monterey, CA and Marlborough, New Zealand. Both had a passion for all things wine, and once united in 1999, they decided to break into the industry by creating an import company to bring their favorite New Zealand small wineries into the US. By 2005, they shifted gears and launched the McBride Sisters brand as two forward-thinking, strong women in an industry defined by tradition and gender. It is their mission to transform the industry, lead by example, and cultivate community. With talented women winemakers- both their Head and their Assistant Winemakers are women- their projects are truly collaborative. Robin and Andréa constantly lift up other women, celebrate other women, support BIPOC women and women in business. The McBride Sisters Collection has several lines: the McBride Sisters Collection, which encourages people to “break the rules, and drink the wine”, the Black Girls Magic Collection, which celebrates the sisters’ culture and story inspired by the magic and resilience of Black women, and the SheCAN collection, which are canned wines and spritzers. Their brand marketing is truly supportive of the beauty of each person’s unique spirit.
In 2019, the sisters created the “The McBride Sisters SHE CAN Fund” to “promote the professional advancement of women in the wine industry in a concerted effort to help close the gender and race gap. In the first year, the fund awarded scholarships of nearly $40,000 to empower women to strive for change and to create opportunities for themselves and others, where there had not been before.” As noted by Robin, “We know first-hand how hard it can be for women to break though in traditionally male-dominated industries and want to open as many doors as possible for the next generation of women leaders.”
McBride Sisters now not only the largest Black-owned wine company in the United States, it is also one of the most inclusive, sustainable, accessible and socially aware. The women behind the brand are inspiring agents of change, and leaders for a brighter future for all of us.
