“Bias is a business killer,” says the co-founder of the largest black-owned wine company in the United States.

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I love sparkling wines, and I recently discovered the McBride Sisters Wine Company and this bottle in particular: Sparkling Brut Rosé. I became obsessed. I brought my new favorite bottle to dinner parties, opened it when I had guests over, and gave it to a girlfriend. My friends love wine as much as I do.

"My curiosity about wine started at a young age," says Robin McBride, co-founder and president of McBride Sisters Wine Company. "I remember trying to ferment Welch's grape juice in baby bottles under my bed! My sister and I have always had a passion for wine that we wanted to share with the world, in an industry where very few people looked like us."

The size of the U.S. wine market is approximately $63.69 billion, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8% (from 2022 to 2030). The sparkling wine segment, my favorite, is expected to see the fastest growth at 7.7%, driven by prosecco and champagne.

Enter the McBride Sisters Wine Company, which the sisters founded in 2005 in California, first as importers and then as winemakers. Its collection of still, sparkling and canned wines has taken the industry by storm in recent years.

Robin McBride and his sister Andrea McBride John co-founded their company in a notoriously unrepresentative industry. "About one percent out of one percent of all winemakers are black," Phil Long, president of the Association of African American Winemakers (AAAV), said in an interview with Wine-Searcher. “If you look at winemakers and brand owners, there are over 50, but if you look at African Americans who are both the winemaker and the brand owner, there are only a few. tens."

Image credit: McBride Sisters Wine Company

The McBride sisters started the movement to change that. “My sister and I are on a mission to transform the industry, lead by example and cultivate community,” said Robin McBride. "One delicious glass of wine at a time."

Here are the three most important lessons McBride and her sister learned while building America's largest black, women-owned winery:

Related: "I'm Not a Diversity Quota," Says Founder Who's Shaking Up the Dessert Category

McBride has always been a problem solver. As a child, she loved taking things apart and putting them back together. She also remembers asking a lot of questions. "I got on everyone's nerves," she says. "I was always on a mission to find out why and look for solutions."

Now, as co-founders, the sisters are always in problem-solving mode. During their journey to build the business, they lacked resources and personnel. The pandemic has been another reminder that money won't solve everything. "We can't pay to play in our industry. Other players are just too big and will always outspend us," McBride said. "During the pandemic, we needed to innovate on ways to engage our consumers. We created a free online wine school on Facebook and filmed modules from home, and it didn't cost us much more than our time. We not only engaged our community but grew it [by providing] helpful content...