Only 1% of US wineries are Black-owned. These entrepreneurs want to change that

As hotel staff lowered the shades, signaling the beginning of the "Black on Black" dinner, guests seated in Aspen's historic Hotel Jerome seemed to take a collective breath - preparing for a joyful and emotional four-hour celebration of the wine industry's most influential Black leaders.

The dinner, hosted Friday during the annual Food & Wine Classic, came together after last year's inaugural event spawned a push to bring more Black voices together to celebrate successes and discuss how to diversify a wine industry dominated by White males.

Guests included former and current NBA players Channing Frye, CJ McCollum, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and Damian Jones; rapper E-40; chef Marcus Samuelsson; and several Black winery owners.

"Don't make me cry," Wine Unify Executive Director Alicia Towns Franken said when prompted to reflect on the importance of the event. "The energy in the room - I wish we could have bottled it. It's important for those people to tell their stories."

Franken also owns Towns Wine Co., one of the approximately 100 Black-owned US wineries, according to the Association of African American Vintners - representing less than 1% of the total 11,500.

It's a problem that the guests at the Black on Black dinner, and many others, hope to change.

As diners dipped spoons into bowls of peanut soup with crispy rice and okra, Franken rose from her seat and described her company's first-ever offering: a South African pinot noir called Inkwell, one of the wines selected by dinner organizers to pair with a dish from the six-course Caribbean-spiced menu.