I started focusing on inclusion and diversity in wine while I was the Beverage Director for a restaurant group in Houston. One location had a mostly minority staff and the menu I inherited was full of wines made exclusively by Caucasian men. Finding wines made by women isn’t hard, but it took some effort back then to find some made by members of the BIPOC community. One of the projects I found was Brown Estate, the first Black-owned estate winery in Napa Valley. They’re known for their Zinfandel (which we also carry), but their House of Brown Chardonnay is delicious (and unoaked), plus the winemaker is a woman of color. It’s crisp and elegant, has the Chardonnay roundness you expect, and the label shows the flavors you can expect. -Peter Plaehn, Surdyk's Wine Buyer