Oct 26, 2020 · 1h 10m · how-i-built-this
McBride Sisters Wine (Part 2 of 2): Robin McBride and Andréa McBride John
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of How I Built This, Robin McBride and Andréa McBride John chronicle their journey of overcoming institutional gatekeeping to build the McBride Sisters Collection into the largest Black-owned wine company in the United States.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 31.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 1.3 Guest teaching 2.6 Guest disagreement 0.2 Guy pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 40:45 Disputing investor availability for Black women founders
Robin bluntly rejects Raz's assumption that investors were offering checks, educating him on the structural underfunding of Black female founders.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 34:55 Challenging the intellectual property realities of corporate partnershipsRaz directly challenges whether corporate joint ventures compromise an entrepreneur's creative control and intellectual property.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 26:08 Debunking romantic winemaking intuition with chemical scienceThe sisters educate Raz on how vineyard harvest timing relies on rigorous sugar brick laboratory measurements rather than romanticized palate intuition.
Guy holds their own ▶ 17:25 Articulating the economic disparity of boutique Burgundy allocationsRaz demonstrates his own commercial understanding of the wine market by breaking down the limited reach and flawed economics of elite Burgundy chateaus.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How I Built This Book Announcement and Promotion | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz delivers an introductory monologue promoting his book and setting the stage for the McBride sisters' story, with brief preview soundbites from the guests. | |
| Importing New Zealand Wine on a Shoestring Budget | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks about startup logistics, and Andréa explains the technical realities of obtaining a federal importer's license, minimum pallet shipments, and federally bonded warehouses. | |
| Cold Calling and Confronting Industry Gatekeepers | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | When Raz suggests a New Zealand accent might have given Andréa an aristocratic advantage, she firmly rejects the premise and details how old-world European wine culture excluded young women of color. | |
| Securing the First Multi-Location Restaurant Account | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Robin recounts learning restaurant service hours after an angry sommelier yelled at her cold call, turning an initial misstep into their first multi-location account. | |
| Democratizing Wine and Building Consumer Accessibility | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz contributes context on Burgundy allocation economics while the sisters define industry pricing tiers and their philosophical commitment to democratizing wine accessibility. | |
| Navigating the 2008 Financial Crisis and Strategic Pivots | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz and the guests discuss navigating the 2008 financial crisis, where unpaid restaurant bills and New Zealand grape surpluses catalyzed their decision to launch their own brand. | |
| Winemaking Craftsmanship and Launching Eco Love | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | Raz asks whether winemakers pick grapes based purely on palate intuition; the sisters correct him by explaining the underlying chemistry, field sampling, and regional flavor profiles of Marlborough valleys. | |
| Entering National Retail Through Supplier Diversity | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | The sisters describe how connecting with corporate supplier diversity programs opened national grocery distribution through SuperValu and Cost Plus World Market. | |
| Recession Dynamics and Overcoming Industry Pretentiousness | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Andréa and Robin explain the cultural divide between welcoming agricultural grape growers and pretentious business gatekeepers in wholesale and distribution. | |
| The Diageo Partnership and Kroger's Independence Call | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Raz presses on the intellectual property conflicts inherent in corporate partnerships like Diageo, prompting the sisters to explain why entrepreneurial agility clashed with corporate bureaucracy. | |
| Mid-Show Break and Entrepreneurship Book Promotion | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Raz assumes venture investors were approaching them after the Kroger meeting; Robin firmly refutes this by citing dismal funding statistics for Black women entrepreneurs. | |
| Creating the McBride Crest and Early Kroger Success | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | The sisters explain the symbolic design of their crest—featuring a peacock for their father and lionesses for their mothers—and their immediate success as Kroger's top new wine brand in 2017. | |
| Essence Festival and the Creation of Black Girl Magic | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Andréa details creating the Black Girl Magic label for the Essence Festival in New Orleans and the overwhelming cultural resonance that turned an event-exclusive Riesling into a core brand line. | |
| Pandemic Adaptations and the Digital E-Commerce Surge | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The sisters detail how early direct-to-consumer e-commerce preparation and hiring Robin's daughter to lead digital marketing scaled online sales exponentially during pandemic lockdowns. | |
| Blackout Tuesday, Community Leadership, and Explosive Growth | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Andréa describes creating a global directory of 67 Black vintners on Blackout Tuesday, sparking massive community buying power and adding 8,000 retail distribution points. | |
| Long-Term Vision: Physical Spaces and Industry Diversity | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The guests outline their long-term vision of establishing physical tasting rooms and training facilities to mentor women and people of color across viticulture and executive wine distribution. | |
| Corporate Acquisition Realities and Protecting Brand Stewardship | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Raz inquires about potential acquisition offers from beverage conglomerates; Andréa and Robin balance the appeal of intergenerational wealth against the duty of brand stewardship. | |
| Reclaiming Agriculture and Honoring Family History | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | The sisters reframe their winemaking enterprise within the generational history of their family—from enslaved sharecroppers picking cotton in Alabama to owners reclaiming agricultural leadership. | |
| Hard Work, Preparation, and Seizing Opportunity | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | When Raz asks whether hard work or luck drove their success, both sisters firmly dismiss luck in favor of relentless preparation and seizing unrecognized opportunities, closing with Raz's episode wrap-up. |
Statements from this episode (18)
McBride Sisters used $1,500 life savings to buy a federal wine license
“A federal importer's license that was like 1500 dollars. It was like our total life savings, and we could import other people's wines”
McBride Sisters launched their import business with an order of 54 cases
“It was, ah, a pallet, which is, like, 54 cases, which is, like, the minimum of what you can, like, put on a boat, you know but for us, that was just, An insane, and in a case of wine, there's 12 bottles”
Andréa McBride John notes wine ownership and distribution are dominated by men
“When you think about the wine business on the winemaking side, on the ownership side, even within the higher ranks of distributors, it's mostly older men.”
It took the McBride sisters six months to sell their first pallet
“I think it took us, ah, about six months.”
The wine industry categorizes any bottle priced over $13 as premium
“In the wine industry premium, I know it's a little bit, like, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but premium is anything that's over 13 dollars a bottle.”
Winemakers lose most control of the outcome once grape fermentation begins
“Once you harvest, once you pick, once the fermentation process starts, you really don't have a lot of control.”
A diversity director's introductions landed McBride Sisters at Target, Disney, and Kroger
“And, like, the next day, he sent out emails to Target, to Disney, to all the major, like, Kroger, all the major Fortune, you know, companies in America, like, getting us a seat at the table.”
Economic recessions shift wine consumption away from restaurants and toward home drinking
“It is, I don't want to say it's recession-proof because the channels in which you operate definitely play into when a recession hits, for sure, when it comes to the wine industry, but I would say for the most part you see that consumption lessens out in, in re…”
Corporate partnerships proved too politically constrained to drive wine industry diversity
“If we were going to bridge this gender gap that happens in the wine industry, and Make the wine industry more inclusive, then we had to do that by ourselves. Because politically, within these strategic partnerships, it was just too difficult.”
Ninety percent of the 10,000 US wineries produce under 5,000 cases annually
“90, 90% of the, like, 10,000 wineries in the United States make less than 5000 cases a year.”
McBride Sisters Collection became Kroger's top new wine brand in 2017
“So, in terms of being a new brand, like, into their stores, we were the number one new brand in their stores, you know, at the end of 20 17.”
Andréa McBride John argues the wine industry historically ignored Black consumers
“And most importantly, I think, unfortunately, the wine industry has just really ignored black people when it comes to wine.”
The McBride Sisters require family members to work elsewhere before joining them
“If you want to join the family business, that's contingent on, you need to go out and work somewhere else and identify, avoid, avoid, That we have that we don't do well, and then come back and interview for a position and come and fill that void and make the c…”
A new digital strategy grew weekly e-commerce revenue from $5,000 to $30,000
“From the first week, But the plan was in place. She took, you know, that revenue from 5000 to, like, 30,000, and I was like, wow, I was like, whoa, hold on.”
The founders plan a physical winery to train diverse wine industry entrepreneurs
“Yeah, and also a training place as well. So if you're a woman, if you're a person of color that's interested in the grape growing winemaking or on the ownership side of the wine industry, this would be a place where you can come and feel welcome.”
Robin McBride says the McBride Sisters brand is not for sale
“Our personal name is not for sale, so that's a little tricky, but also the brands that we create you know, each of those Brands has a very powerful message behind them, and like Andrea said, that don't belong to us necessarily. We see ourselves as the stewards…”