BUSINESS NEWS
4 • February 2021
Meet the Merchant
Interview by Emily Lindblom elindblom@crbizjournal.com
Eunice Chiweshe Goldstein Winery’s “I Can’t
Breathe” wine is a #purposewine inspired by
the Black Lives Matter movement.
EDWARD STRATTON
Eunice Chiweshe Goldstein
Eunice Chiweshe Goldstein Winery
Eunice Chiweshe Goldstein
1052 Commercial St., Astoria
eunicechiweshegoldsteinwinery.com
Could you introduce yourself?
“I am a director, actress, writer, and winemaker
and winery owner. Deep down ever since I was lit-
tle I’ve always been really passionate about the
film industry, and just watching my grandparents
really inspired me to take on the venture of winery
owner and brewer, which is the next thing that we
are preparing to embark on is a brewery.”
Could you tell me about the winery?
“I can start from the very beginning. As a lit-
tle girl, I watched my grandfather do a lot of grow-
ing on the farm in Zimbabwe. My grandmother
would be just right there by his side and it was
really, really inspiring to watch both of them and
learn from them. I would say my grandmother is
an amazing person who was extremely passionate
about helping others and uplifting others. And so
was my grandfather. It was just amazing watching
them as a child.”
Yeah, I’ve read a couple other stories that
have been written about you. So I saw that
they were a big influence on your life and your
career.
“Thank you. It is such an honor to have grand-
Coast River Business Journal
parents and absorb as much as you can from them
because they’ve experienced so many different
aspects of life. And I think they have a vast amount
of knowledge in terms of everything. From the
simple things to the most complicated things, I
always feel like grandparents have the answers. I
just feel like they’re such a privilege to have.”
So then how did you come to start your own
winery out here on the coast?
“I went to UCLA film school and being in the
film and television industry I was around a lot
of different people. Vittorio Storaro was some-
one that I learned from a lot and I’ve also worked
with Francis Ford Coppola on a whole bunch of
his movies. Whenever Francis Ford Coppola
came through UCLA, watching him move seam-
lessly between film and the whole winery aspect
seemed like something that made sense. I thought
to myself, well I’ve gotten the directing part down
and have gone through film school and with my
grandparents having influenced me, I think this is
something that I can definitely do.
In 2017, I took my savings and bought some
property in Oregon. I really fell in love with the
nature and the beauty of Oregon. And this was
like, this is the perfect place. So I bought some
land, and then came out here. I didn’t really know
much about the history of Oregon, other than that
it has beautiful trees and nature.
When I came here, I went through the applica-
tion and in 2018 we received all of our licensing.
The tasting room in Astoria, where Capricorn Pub
used to be, is where we got our start. And from
there, it’s just been getting everything in order and
then getting our wines to as many people as we
possibly can with a message, which is where the
#purposewine originated.”
Tell me about the tasting room?
“It’s at 1052 Commercial St., Astoria.
And then as far as Rockaway, we still have
our property there. That is where the vineyards
are, and we’re developing the main tasting room
there.”
I was looking at your website, and I saw
that you have a lot of different purpose wines,
including the Black Lives Matter Pinot Noir
and the NAACP Inganci wine. And so I was
wondering if you could talk a little bit about
that, about how the Black Lives Matter resur-
gence has played into that.
“The ‘I Can’t Breathe’ bottle was inspired by
the Black Lives Matter movement that transpired
over the summer of 2020. I think it was such a poi-
gnant point in American history. It’s important
for us to be inclusive, America clearly belongs to
everyone. And I think that the faster we get to that
point, the easier it is going to be for us to start tak-
ing care of other issues, which include preserving
our planet. But we’re so hung up on race and all
these other things that I think if we’re not careful,
are just going to continue destroying us instead of
helping us as a nation. It’s sad that America has
become so divided. I believe that wine brings
everyone to the table. And with that, we can all
start discussing these really eminent issues that we
need to tackle, which one of them is racism.”
Definitely. Yeah, that’s important. Since this
feature is going into February’s edition, and
February is Black History Month, I was won-
dering if you wanted to talk about that as Ore-
gon’s first Black winery owner.
“I’m not only Oregon’s first Black winery
owner, but first Black female winemaker, and I
didn’t realize it until 2018. And I thought to myself,
‘Wow, I can’t believe that it’s taken this long.’ It’s
sad that for Black people in the past, whenever
you bought property or a piece of property, you
had to get the signatures in an eight block radius
from everyone before you could even purchase it.
And there’s a lot of issues that were even in Ore-
gon’s constitution. You can’t change the color of
your skin. Now, what would you do if you were in
a society that continuously seems to present that to
be something that is a problem or an issue? Just out
of curiosity, what would you do?
Yeah, I would definitely want to be part of
the change and speak against that. And write
about what’s happening, and try to advocate
for positive change.
“Right. And that’s precisely it. You know, I
think that sometimes people don’t realize it until
you’re kind of thrust into that. And you’re like,
‘wait, I just woke up this way.’ But the best I can
do is teach positivity and love and peace and do
the best I can to make this place a better world. For
Black History Month, we’re partnering up with
NAACP and continuing to advocate for people to
see the humanity in other people because I think
that if we all saw the humanity in each other, the
circumstances would be different.
And we will probably also have a Valentine’s
Day bottle. I love February because obviously it’s
Valentine’s Day and Black History Month. I will
continue to highlight so many other ancestors
that have come before me and paved the way and
opened the door, but I do see that there is still a lot
of work for us to do.”
Yeah. For the purpose wine I also saw you
had a “Pandemic Relief Rosé.” (The label on
this bottle shows a picture of a zombie.)
“We’ve been in this pandemic for quite some
time and I know people are getting to a point
where they’re like, ‘I need some relief.’ So we
thought it would be great to have this zombie as
kind of an homage to the many zombie movies that
are out there. And so if you drink some of this, it
will help you with pandemic relief, you won’t turn
into a zombie!”
Is there anything else you want to say about
the pandemic, how it affected you or your busi-
ness, and how you’ve adapted?
“It propelled us to be very innovative. It’s