It’s the time of year when we gather with friends and family to celebrate with delicious food and fellowship. But as you celebrate, why not include a few Black-owned wine and spirit brands in the mix, too.
Although the numbers are growing, the owners of these brands still only make up a small percentage of their overall industries. That is why we try to highlight and bring awareness to them as often as we can. Supporting them during your holiday festivities can go farther than you think.
As you gear up for events this season, here are 30 Black-owned wine and spirit brands to purchase for your holiday parties.
1. Abbey Creek Wine
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Launched in 2007, Abbey Creek Vineyard is a hip-hop-inspired winery based in North Plains, Oregon.
2. Amour Genève
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Coviello Salinès’ Amour Genève wine is inextricably linked to his father Freddie Francisco Salinès. For one, the trademark electric blue shade is a reflection of the older Salinès’ love for the color.
3. Anteel Tequila
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Nayana Ferguson is the beauty and brains behind Anteel Tequila: the first tequila brand to be partially owned and led by a Black woman in the United States and the only company to distribute the world’s only coconut lime Blanco tequila.
4. Bleu Vodka
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Bleu Vodka was founded by Alizbeth Jetter, her husband Britt Jetter, and her business partner Dr. Tony Vanden Bush. The infused fruit liqueur brand first hit shelves in 2016.
The range currently comprises two flavors: Bleu Original, a wild blueberry vodka liqueur made from grain vodka, and wild blueberries.
The second expression in the collection is Bleu Pel Vodka Liqueur, made from grain vodka and citrus zest. The brand is currently available in select retail stores across Illinois and Iowa in the US.
5. Brough Brothers Distillery
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Bryson, Chris, and Victor Yarbrough are the creators of Kentucky’s first African American-owned distillery. Brough Brothers Distillery
A medium body flavor featuring fruity notes of green apple and pear. It also has subtle hints of ginger and nutmeg. Featuring a golden honey color.
6. Du Nord Craft Spirits
Founded in 2013, Du Nord Craft Spirits is owned by Shanelle Montana and her husband Chris Montana, former president of the American Craft Spirits Association.
Based in Minneapolis, the distillery creates a range of award-winning spirits, including L’Étoile Du Nord Vodka, Fitzgerald Gin, and Mixed Blood Blended Whiskey.
7. Duke & Dame Salted Caramel Flavored Whiskey
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Duke & Dame has been recognized by industry experts as one of the best-flavored whiskeys on earth.
The founder’s vision was to redefine the whiskey drinking experience by creating a premium flavored whiskey that would stimulate the senses at each stage of the drinking process, and boom: a salted caramel flavored whiskey was born.
8. Ebony Wine and Spirits
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Ebony Wine and Spirits is a family affair. Masunda has enlisted the help of her entire family, to make the brand even better. As a wine enthusiast herself, she wanted to enter the industry because she found that the number of Black women owners was still significantly low.
9. Exclave Spirits
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There’s so much to love about Exclave Spirits from its taste and design but what we especially love is the fact that the brand pays homage to the lost stories and contributions of Black people who have advanced distilled spirits.
“We are committed to innovation and creating world-class products bottled in reverence of the vanguard of Black distillers,” a statement on the website reads.
10. Fresh Bourbon Distillery
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Fresh Bourbon Distillery was created by power couple Tia and Sean Edwards.
The Edwards are inching towards being the largest African-American-owned distillery in the state of Kentucky.
11. Fou-Dré Vodka
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Chanel Turner is said to be the youngest woman to start her own spirit company. She wanted to create a vodka that catered to women. After testing over 80 formulas, she partnered with a distillery in South Carolina to create Fou-Dré.
Her vodka can be purchased online or in physical locations throughout the Washington, DC area and Atlanta.
12. Guidance Whiskey
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Guidance Whiskey is a Tennessee-based and Black-owned Whiskey Brand. Launched in 2018, Guidance Whiskey was in stores in Memphis, Nashville, and Atlanta, and available for purchase to 44 states in the U.S.
13. HH Bespoke Spirits
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HH Bespoke was co-founded by Sharene Wood. It’s a family-owned spirits business that offers a selection of rum, gin, and vodka.
Try one of their spirits with one of their cocktails: Harlem Walk, Southside Harlem, or Corpse Reviver.
14. Highway Vodka
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You won’t find many spirits like Highway Vodka. The Houston-based brand took nearly 8 brands to perfect.
The creators use a unique strain of hemp, locally sourced corn, and water from its artesian aquifer that rounds out the grain bill of its mash. After mashing, it is then transferred to the fermentation stage, where it will sit for a period of one to one-and-a-half weeks.
During that time the hemp acts as a super fuel to the yeast, performing the conversion from sugars to alcohol. At the same time, a thick layer of hemp oil forms at the top of the fermenter.
As a result of this delicate process, they have created a smoother product that has a noticeably different viscosity and mouthfeel than other vodkas. Yum!
15. La Fête du Rosé
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The wine is created at the vineyard in Saint-Tropez, while Burston has 100% control and ownership. He chose the name Fête, a Caribbean word meaning celebration because he felt that the word held power.
16. LS Cream Liqueur
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For Haitian-Canadian couple Miriam and Stevens Charles, it was simply the norm to see family members whipping up batches of kremas during holidays and special gatherings. The drink consisting of nutmeg, cream, cinnamon, coconut, vanilla, and pure grain alcohol was something that their grandmothers and aunts would spend hours in the kitchen making. It was a major part of Haitian culture.
Around 2013, the couple realized that this renowned recipe could not be found for purchase anywhere, and you had to know someone that could make it themself. So, they did!
17. Look Vodka
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Look Vodka was created by founder Carmelita Hilliard in 2016. Carmelita recognized a market gap in the representation of minority women suppliers in the alcohol industry and the lack of a brand that appealed to minority women as consumers.
From that point on, she decided to devote herself to the idea of creating a brand and movement to bridge the market gap locally.
18. Los Negros Organic Tequila
Thaddeus Massey and Randy Morgan are the founders of Los Negros Organic Tequila.
Luxury is something both men want people to experience when taking a sip of the brand.
“The name was inspired by the color Black,” Thaddeus told Travel Noire. “If you order the luxurious car service on Uber, it’s called Uber Black. When there’s a nice event, women typically shoes their little black dresses. When you go skiing, the top hill is the Black Diamond on the slopes. When you run a business, you want to be in the black and not the red. Los Negros translates to The Black which encompasses all those things that are of elite status.”
19. Mayine Gin
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Founded by gin enthusiasts Luvuyo Jongile and his wife Nodumo Jongile, Mayine Gin became the first Black-owned gin brand in Africa.
Mayine, which means ‘let it rain’, currently consists of two flavors: Grape Based and Rooibos Infused. Botanicals used in both expressions include classic ingredients such as juniper, angelica root, coriander, as well as buchu, a plant native to the lower mountains of western South Africa, and rooibos.
20. McBride Sisters Wine Collection
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Founders and sisters Robin and Andréa were raised separately in the wine regions of Monterey, California, and Marlborough, New Zealand. In 2017, Robin and Andréa released the McBride Sisters Wine Collection that includes a variety of wines including Black Girl Magic California Riesling and Black Girl Magic California Rosé.
21. Mermosa Wine
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Desiree Noisette is the founder of Florida’s first Black woman-owned wine brand.
Mermosa was created to celebrate everyone’s inner mermaid while honoring one woman in Noisette’s family who came seven generations before her.
22. Ole’ Orleans Wines
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Ole’ Orleans Wines is a tribute to New Orleans and its historic legacy. Launched by New Orleans native Kim Lewis in 2018, here is where you can find Blanc Du Blanc, Blanc du Bois, and Merlot.
23. Revel Spirits
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Founders Jacqui Thompson and Micah McFarlane are leading a mission to deliver the finest organic spirits available, utilizing fair-trade and sustainable farming practices.
Revel is a completely 100% agave-based spirit. Avila is a category of agave spirits similar to tequila and mezcal made from 100% blue weber agave but grown in the Morelos region, a small state in the south-central part of Mexico under the shadow of the Popocatépetl volcano. It’s sold in three expressions: Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo.
24. Rex Whiskey
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Chaunci King’s liquor company, Royalty Spirits, created Rex Whiskey in 2017.
She is the first African American woman liquor owner in the Pacific Northwest. This Portland Oregon brand’s mission is to “produce products of rich taste, high quality, and longevity.”
25. Rivulet® Artisan Pecan Liqueur
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Rivulet begins with the finest slow-distilled brandy, gently aged to perfection in small oak casks, resulting in a spirit that some say is smoother than silk. Their brandy is distilled and aged using the same time-honored methods and traditions that have been passed down for generations.
26. Saint Liberty Whiskey
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Saint Liberty Whiskey honors the bootlegging women of Prohibition in a larger nod to all the strong women in American history who’ve provided for themselves and their families in the face of adversity.
The brand is partly owned by minority women-led spirits advisory group Erin Harris and Dia Simms. Each bottle tells the story of a female bootlegger to amplify the voices of the unsung women of American history.
27. Sephina Spirits
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Sephina, imported from France, is a craft spirit blend of V.S.O.P. Cognac and fortified wine.
Founded by Ken Gilbert, the combination delivers both warmth and richness for a luxurious taste conceived.
28. Shadow Ridge Spirits
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Lisa Ireland teamed up with her husband to create Shadow Ridge Spirits Company.
Shadow Ridge specializes in small-batch spirits, offering a selection of 100% grain-to-glass whiskeys aged in American white oak barrels, including Bourbon, rye, peated single malt, and American single malt.
29. Stuyvesant Champagne
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Named after Brooklyn’s most notorious neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Marvina Robinson debuted Stuyvesant Champagne in 2020 to pay homage to her home.
30. Sukarai Spirits
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Sukari Spirits is a hybrid brand that offers consumers a handcrafted, domestically produced, ready-to-drink vodka spirit of the highest quality. The brand consists of all-natural fruit flavors and vegetable juices for color, with no preservatives or unnatural ingredients.
Sukari takes fruit-infused vodkas to another level, as it’s distilled five times and filtered five times before it’s infused. Blood orange and dragon fruit lead the way in this woman-owned, Black-owned, veteran-owned spirit.
31. TCapri® Tequila
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Tiffany Hainesworth is known as the first Black woman to solely own a tequila brand.
TCapri® Tequila is made from 100% Blue Weber agave, natural yeast, and volcanic-filtered well water from the distillery’s estate, with absolutely no additives of any kind.
32. Ten To One
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Black-owned rum brand Ten To One is reintroducing rum to the spirit industry with an elevated taste and a new face.
Founded by Marc-Kwesi Farrell, the brand recently partnered with Ciara as an investor and co-owner who will help direct the brand’s future.
33. Tequila With Friends
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Tequila with Friends was launched in 2018.
The four friends turned founding partners were looking to bring a brand to life that reflected the bond they shared through travel, adventure, and tequila.
At its core, Tequila with Friends is an experiential spirit brand that the founders say can be defined in one statement: Good times. Great friends. Memories that last a lifetime.
34. Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey
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Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is inspired by the best whiskey maker the world never knew, the first known African-American master distiller, Nathan “Nearest” Green.
Entrepreneur and author Fawn Weaver is making sure that Uncle Nearest’s legacy never dies. She created Uncle Nearest, a premium whiskey brand that uses Green’s original formulas. Her project is in conjunction with the Green family’s efforts and blessing.
