That'd be the one. Exactly my point. You know what else is expensive and difficult? College...

To say something like that is "ignorant" of a whole host of sociological factors let alone the industry itself ignoring that demographic, which is what I think the point everyone is missing is.

I don't think "A Walk In The Clouds" or "Sideways" or any other movie made around wine ever in the history of movies ever targeted an African American audience. The "perception", which is wholly controlled by the marketing departments of wine companies (the bigger the more influential), is that its a product for wealthy white people. Those who have targeted African Americans (some Sparkling wines come to mind) have done quite well.

If it looked like a product for African Americans and not a product specifically for white Americans then more black americans would be more involved. "Difficulty" is not a factor. Neither is a perception of "expensive".

Right now its a part of white American culture, just as hip-hop is a part of black american culture. Doesn't mean it purposely excludes whites from hip-hop, its just a complex sociological question.

Would making wine be better if more blacks were doing it? Honestly, even I don't see how. They go to the same colleges, learn the from the same books, get mentored by the same existing wine makers, and contrary to what some might think, face the same difficulties that white wine makers go through. Maybe I don't know enough about wine making to know what sublties blacks might change to inject their culture into the process in a way that is unique to them and therefore improve on a process that has been dominated by a single race.

Diversity is good and if the practice of wine making were designed to exclude then I'd have a whole lot to say on the matter. There may be subtle things going on - less financial backing for black owned wineries or wine makers, fewer meetings with certain buyers, etc... - that are born of personal biases, but I can tell you thats nothing we haven't seen before. This country is evolving but we're going to face that everywhere, not just in the wine industry.

Is the wine industry suffering from a lack of diversity? Only in that the perception is of an industry that is less open to others (everything looks targeted to rich white people) and changing that would likely open up a broader audience to make more money. But not in the quality of the wine being made.

Awful lot of white people commenting on this article...just sayin'

;-P

Sure Barrie, consider it done!