Winemaker on a mission

By Maggie Shiels in California

Mac Macdonald: Bringing wine to a wider audience

In his personal wine cellar, Mac MacDonald breaks out a few bottles of his favourite tipple.

As an African-American, Mac certainly doesn't fulfil the stereotypical image of the wine drinker.

And as the owner of a boutique wine label called Vision Cellars, he's on a mission to dispel the pre-conceived notion that wine is a white person's drink.

"I go to a lot of wine events, and during these events, I may see over a period of three days, five, at the most, African-Americans," he told the BBC's World Business Report.

"When I went to Atlanta, Georgia, which is an African-American town, I saw less than ten African Americans.

"I thought, something's wrong with this."

Imbalance

In order to correct this picture, Mac has joined forces with other black winemakers to form a marketing group called the Association of African-American Vintners.

He regularly tours the country with his wine, educating fellow African-Americans about the product.

Black consumers make up 11% of the adult population in the US, but less than 3% are wine drinkers.

Mac wants to change that.

"I say, let's get all folks, because for a long time the wine industry has been talking about the need to find more wine drinkers," he says.

Wine broker Bill Turrentine of Turrentine Wines says the industry's narrow focus is also shutting out other potential customers.

"There's very little marketing to Hispanics for wine. And there's a lot of other ethnic groups, a lot of Asians, in the US who enjoy wine.

"But there's very little marketing that has taken that demographic into account, and I think that's certainly true of African-Americans too."

Challenge

Some wine retailers have warned that a marketing campaign aimed at African-American consumers runs the risk of being ignored by other sections of the community.

But as Mac, the son of a Texas moonshiner, checks on the state of his vines, he says his objective is to change the industry for everyone.

"This isn't just a black thing, we've done this to benefit the whole wine industry.

"We're looking at ways of changing the whole concept of drinking wine."

The Wine Market Council says the relatively low number of black wine drinkers should be taken as a challenge by the industry to address the broadest market possible, and to position wine as part of the way of life in America for everyone.