each raised in wine country but half a world away from each other the mcbride sisters may have grown up separately but they’ve spent their adult lives together bonded by not only genetics but by their mutual interests in business the wine industry and celebrating and promoting diversity robin mcbride and andréa mcbride john found each other as young adults when their father became terminally ill and divulged their family history raised in monterrey calif robin grew up with her mother while andréa grew up in marlborough new zealand with her mother who passed away when she was young and then with a foster family the two first met in 1999 and shortly thereafter andréa moved to california to attend usc while robin lived in the bay area the sisters would frequently meet up halfway along the central coast where wine country was again the main backdrop realizing their goals and interests aligned the sisters decided to start importing new zealand wines in 2005 and began creating their own wine in 2009 which debuted in 2015 by spring 2017 the pair were combining their connections in their respective hometowns to produce wines from new zealand sauvignon blanc and brut rosé and california chardonnay and red blend under one label mcbride sisters collection in 2018 they launched black girl magic as a celebratory wine brand and debuted she can in 2019 on international women’s day they’re now running the largest blackowned wine company in the us here the sisters share their adventures in success what it’s like to work with family and how the last year has helped them give back penta how do you manage overseeing three different wine brands how have you given each its own identity robin mcbride with the mcbride sisters collection it’s very much a reflection of the two of us each wine from california or new zealand is meant to be a highquality example of that region and express its terroir we also like to focus on the epicurean lifestyle aspect of it for black girl magic we initially created it to honor black women who are here today and from the past—it’s about everything we see that’s beautiful about the black women around us and celebrating everyday wins whether that means a birthday or graduation or the fact that you just got off work we are stewards of that phrase and the meaning behind it the wine in that collection is mostly from california and our winemaker amy butler makes sure those barrels get a bit of extra love with she can it has its own personality and purpose it came about because we wanted to find a way to evolve drinking occasions—taking it away from the table and the corkscrew and glasses it took a while to find the technology for the liners in the cans to work but it was worth it each can is actually 25 servings and it’s something you can toss in your bag and take to a picnic or the movie theater how did your family and upbringing influence your brand andréa mcbride john with she can especially we thought about the trajectory of our lives being raised by our moms not having our dad around and the importance of women and women’s empowerment we decided to create our own family crest and designed the can with lionesses on the side to represent our mothers and then a peacock over the top that represents our shared father we also wanted to figure out how we could help other women coming into business so in march 2018 we launched selffunded scholarships and grants to 12 women in the wine industry we’re in our third year now last year was different with the pandemic but we reimagined the fund for 2020 and made the focus on black womenowned small businesses we saw early on that there was a disproportionate number of blackowned and womenowned businesses closing so we got corporate partners and sponsors like facebook silicon valley bank and morgan stanley to support the fund we granted more than us300000 to 30 women we also help with mentorship financial coaching marketing and advertising advice it’s really important to my sister and i that we make an impact how would you describe what the last year has been like for the alcohol industry andréa as a whole we all saw the shift of wine and spirits being purchased in retail stores instead of at bars and restaurants there was a boom in online sales and in people purchasing directly from brands last year the demand went through the roof and a lot of companies had to ramp up quickly to meet demand robin also for us the last year and black lives matter movement ultimately lead to a lot of vocal support and demand for blackowned brands mass retailers were looking for brands like ours and there were a lot of initiatives on social media for support we had never seen that before there aren’t a lot of blackowned wine brands—it’s something like 006 of wineries are black owned around the time of blackout tuesday we took that moment to introduce people to other blackowned wine companies and compiled a list of more than 60 brands we shared it on social media and it went viral we weren’t quite ready for that but it highlighted consumer interest which allowed them to get to know winemakers have access to their products they find it online try it and fall in love with it a lot of progress was made retailers had to listen to consumers and people were forced to reckon with the fact that there’s a lot of racial bias but things shifted and a lot of blackowned wineries were able to get visibility we have a great story based on our background as sisters but there are other blackowned companies that have been around longer and don’t get the same attention we’re easy to find for a lot of people so we wanted to take a moment and inform them that there are 60plus other brands or winemakers wineries that they should try as well as time went on the list grew to 100plus it was an amazing moment to be a part of what’s it like working with family andréa amazing our background and experience is a lot different than a typical sibling relationship—we didn’t bring childhood baggage to the table when we met i was 16 and my sister was 25 we were so grateful to know each other and there was no weird background—no one stole the other one’s doll growing up we didn’t bring that to the table a lot of our relationship has been as business partners teammates robin right before the pandemic my daughter joined the company on the digital marketing side and for the first ten years of our business my mom handled our accounting and bookkeeping so the family connection goes beyond just us two as sisters the best advice i can give about working with family is to be compassionate with each other and be honest a lot of people we talk to bring ego into it which can be a hurdle at the end of the day though it’s your family this interview has been edited for length and clarity