Vinepair: Oakland’s Vibrant Wine Scene Features Bottles Made for and by Black Americans

Oakland’s appeal encompasses a cultural cornucopia of food, music, art, and activism. Wine lovers will feel right at home here, too, as a growing network of winemakers in Oakland and the Bay Area is establishing its own identity, apart from its well-established neighbors in Napa and Sonoma.

Along with Oakland’s Urban Wine Trail, which showcases tasting rooms in warehouses in the heart of the city, a subset of Oakland’s wine scene is flourishing in the city’s outskirts. Its sustainably sourced, award-winning wines are made for and by a historically underserved group of drinkers: black Americans.

BLACK PANTHERS TO BLACK VINES

In 1966, the Black Panther Party formed in Oakland, Calif. Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the political organization’s goals included fighting police brutality against black Americans and establishing independence in black communities. The Black Panther Party officially dissolved in 1982, but it remains an integral part of the city’s legacy and identity.

Since then, Oakland has changed dramatically. The historically black city is one of the most ethnically diverse in the country, but gentrification from Silicon Valley spillover is creating a contrast to the city’s proudly black origins…