Street roots., July 31, 2015, Page 5, Image 5

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Page 5
WINE, from page 4
typical for restaurant guests to ask for him,
but then not recognize him as a sommelier
when he arrived tableside, asking them if
they were ready to talk about wine.
“They would say, ‘Yeah. We’re waiting for
the sommelier,”’ he remembers. He says he
liked to have fun with the situation -
sometimes he’d spin in a circle and then say,
“Ta-dah.”
“Fine wine, by its nature, is elitist,” Mack
says. “It’s only grown in certain areas, the
finished product is expensive; land is
expensive. It generally gravitates to the
haves and have nots - wine at the top level
'v— and I think that’s what most people see.”
The first time he visited a vineyard in
Napa Valley, he was already a sommelier,
but regardless, he says he was slightly
intimidated. Once he realized he was among
farmers, he felt more at ease.
“It’s not this pretentiousness that wine is
portrayed as,” he says. “I think a lot of
people of color, for a lot of us, we have to
see people like us doing those things to see
that we can do them by assimilation.”
Shuhe Hawkins and Kate Larsen have
owned and operated Seven Sails since 2013
The pair also organizes the annual Portland
Pirate Festival and named their wine label
m reference to a seven-sailed “pirate ship”
they are restoring. Hawkins will also be
featured in “Red, White and Black.”
Long before Hawkins ever met Faustin,
he was often mistaken for him when he
went to wine shops and restaurants on sales
caUs. Despite their starkly different features,
statures, skin tones and personalities,
Hawkins says people just couldn’t believe
there was more than one black guy who
owned a vineyard on Germantown Road.
I m not actually truly African-American,”
says Hawkins, whose father was from
Barbados. “The irony of it is just too weird.
The confusion, I think, is part of the story.”
He says, “The industry at large, the face
of it, seems to be fairly dominantly
Caucasian — quite predominantly — but a
bulk of the work is done by people of a
variety of ethnicities, so it’s already there.
It s always been there. There are more
people of diverse ethnicity working in wine
than anyone even thinks about.”
The Oregon Wine Board is the semi-
independent Oregon state agency
responsible for marketing, researching and
supporting the advancement of Oregon
wines. It’s funded by taxes paid to the
Oregon Liquor Control Commission by all of
Oregon’s winemakers.
Faustin thinks the Oregon Wine Board’s
website perpetuates the idea that Oregon’s
wine scene is pretentious and predominantly
“Now, I ’m in th e g am e for e ig h t years,
and I’ve Seen the story, I’ve heard the story,
over and over again, but that’s not really the
face of Oregon wine. If you’re from another
state, that’s what you’re seeing. So when
you come out here and see me,” he says,
“to me, I feel it makes my story even more
difficult to believe — if that’s the image that
we’re putting out.”
A quick inventory of images displayed on
Oregon Wine Board’s website confirmed
Faustin’s perception — photos throughout
portrayed a very white Oregon wine scene.
When asked about the lack of diversity on
its website, Oregon Wine Board
spokesperson Michelle Kaufmann told
Street Roots, “Everyone who is featured in
our photographs are people that live here
and work here. These are not staged
photographs.
“We are open to all people, of all
ethnicities, all minority groups, as long as
they’re interested in wine. Most Oregon
wine sells for more than $14 a bottle, as
long as that’s the price point that they
realize they’re getting into, we welcome
everyone,” she says.
It’s the price point of Oregon wines, she
says, that “is going to sort of segment the
consumer audience that would be interested
in our wines.”
nother Oregon winemaker, André Mack,
worked as a sommelier in Texas, New
York and Napa Valley, Calif., before
launching his own label in Oregon. Today
he’s the proprietor of Mouton Noir, or Black
Sheep - a nickname other sommeliers gave
him when he arrived in New York. His
portfolio includes O.P.P., also known as
Other People’s Pinot - both gris and noir,
Knock on Wood Chardonnay and Love
A
hen Faustin approached him about the
film project, he says his initial reaction
was, “Oh, wow. There are other African-
American people in the wine business in
Oregon besides myself!”
But the film doesn’t focus solely on black
winemakers. Fasutin wanted to include
other minority winemakers, as well as
members of the LGBTQ community.
“I can’t hide that I’m black,” Faustin says.
“Whether that affects you or not, you roll
with it, but imagine a lesbian or gay person,
being Caucasian, and not knowing if they
W
should make th a t known. Ttmagme th e
P H O T O B Y D IE G O D IA Z
The “Red, White and Black” film crew on set at Bertony Faustin’s vineyard, about 20 minutes
northwest o f Portland on Germantown Road.
Bertony Faustin walks between rows o f grapevines at his 15-acre vineyard. Due to the property’s
zoning, he transports the grapes to his tasting room 15 minutes away in North Plains, where he
turns them into his line o f Abbey Creek wines.
Drunk Rosé.
Mack’s wines are sold in 47 states and 13
countries but are not currently available in
Oregon because he’s looking for a new
distributor, he says.
As an African-American in the wine
business, he says he’s been an anomaly
wherever he’s worked, and that the face of
Oregon’s wine scene is not unique. When he
worked as a sommelier, he says it was
internal stress that you have.” |
Also featured is Hispanic vintner Jesus
Guillen, who made headlines in 2013 when
his wines received high scores from The
Wine Advocate; he tied the highest score
ever given to an Oregon pino noir for his
2009 vintage.
According to The Oregonian, Guillen was
the only Mexican winemaker in the state at
that time. He started in the industry as a
vineyard laborer at White Rose Estates.
When he met the owner, he expressed an
interest in learning more and was offered a
job in the cellar. In 2008, he became the
estate’s winemaker.
Guillen says his experience in the Oregon
wine industry has been positive, and he’s
received a lot of help and encouragement
along the way. He says he hopes the
documentary will “let the younger minority
boys and girls know that there is an
opportunity in the industry for them.”
“H ie industry here is very friendly for
anyone who wants to work in it,” Guillen
says. “If you know what you want, no matter
what your race, you will find people that will
help you achieve your goals, and that’s what
happened for me.”
Faustin chose Jerry Bell Jr. to direct the
documentary. Bell retired from a 16-year
career with Intel about a year and a half ago
to focus on acting and filmmaking. This will
be his first feature-length film and the first
film he’s directed and produced.
Bell says he aspires not only to show
there is a diverse range of people making
wine but to educate people about the wine
process so they are more familiarized with
it, as well. “Also kind of loosen up that
intimidation factor for a lot of people.”
emily@streetroots. org