Two Black-Owned Indiana Wineries Blend Their Passions and Professions
In partnership with: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
According to the Association of African American Vintners, only 1% of U.S. wineries are Black-owned. But Indiana winemakers are diversifying the wine industry and agriculture in general.
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Sip & Share Wines
“My personal goal is to see more women in agriculture as wine is an agricultural product,” says Nicole Kearney, owner of Sip & Share Wines, which produces 2,500 cases annually.
Black women currently account for merely 0.01% of winemakers. Kearney hopes representation will surpass 10% soon.
“The saying goes, ‘All great wine starts in the vineyard,’” Kearney says. “Increasing the number of women in the agriculture industry allows others to see the representation and visualize a career for themselves.”
Winemaking wasn’t always the career plan for this New Jersey native. While pursuing a doctorate in dramatic writing, Kearney savored sipping wine during creative study sessions with seven fellow writers. These pivotal moments would, eventually, inspire her next chapter. The mother of two conceptualized 7 Words Wine, the first Sip & Share Wines collection.
“Many Black and Brown wine lovers come to wine later in life. That’s because they’re spirit drinkers, so wine seems intimidating and inaccessible,” says Kearney, a Level 2 wine educator certified by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. “Sip & Share Wines aims to shatter misconceptions. Wine is fun and, as our brand alludes, is made to be shared with family and friends.”
Because Kearney and her loved ones mostly follow a plant-based diet, Sip & Share Wines are vegan. The company sources grapes and juice from Lodi, California, then completes fermentation, bottling and labeling at its working winery in Indianapolis.
Sip & Share Wines’ customers, deemed “sipporters” by Kearney, often favor the Gratitude Red Blend, a 50/50 blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, while she herself prefers the Conjure Zinfandel.
Ten varieties, all around $20 a bottle, are sold in Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York and, of course, Indiana via sipandsharewines.com. In Indianapolis, products are stocked at five Total Wines and Kahn’s Fine Wines & Spirits stores. Sip & Share Wines is set to unveil ready-to-drink wine cocktails and, potentially, pursue a tasting room in the future, helping to spread the word about Indiana black-owned wineries.
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Perry Vine
Like Kearney, Tavarus Perry says he and his wife, Kamika, unexpectedly turned passion into a profession. He casually began fermenting cider and mead, or honey wine, quickly discovering he could achieve unique, harmonious flavors.
“This craft is very fulfilling because it gives me room to experiment and create something that I’m not only proud of but that I get to see others delight in, too,” says Perry, who co-launched Perry Vine, a micro-meadery currently selling 250 bottles per month.
It’s the second entrepreneurial endeavor for the South Bend parents of three, who also run Eyedea Studio LLC, a multimedia marketing company.
“The hope is to, eventually, scale back completely from our media company to focus mainly on Perry Vine,” Perry says of shifting creative ventures.
Previously, Perry rarely consumed alcohol. He hadn’t quite discovered his preferred libation.
“I believe that 70% of the experience is smell and the other 30% is taste,” he says. “The drink must feel as good going down as it smells and tastes.”
That craving for aroma and texture led to Perry Vine’s original mead recipe using local Shipshewana honey. Unlike wine, which is made from fermenting grapes and yeast, mead is made from fermenting honey, water and yeast.
“It has a simple flavor, but fermenting mead can be tricky because the taste can become too strong or too dry,” Perry says. “I went through many batches before refining our recipe.”
Priced between $15 and $32 a bottle at perryvine.com and in their South Bend store, Perry Vine now sells 11 varieties, including five year-round meads (Honey, Blueberry, Peach, Strawberry and Strawberry Lemonade), two seasonal meads (Chocolate and Pumpkin Spice) and other wines and cider. Perry Vine currently offers tastings on Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m., and plans for expansion are underway.
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