The House of Pure Vin in downtown Detroit will host winemakers Robin and Andréa McBride today. The African-American sisters are scheduled to launch their McBride Sisters Collection to Detroit and Michigan. Their wines will also be sold at Kroger stores.

Their winemaking story is unique in many ways. In an industry dominated by men, they are young minority women. Of the nearly 4,000 wineries in California, only 10% have a woman as the lead winemaker, according to research by professors LucIa and John Gilbert of Santa Clara University and their research website womenwinemakers.com.

But also compelling is that for a good part of their lives the sisters lived thousands of miles apart, on two different continents, not knowing about each other. Both have the same biological father, but have different mothers in Los Angeles. Robin was raised in Monterrey, Calif., and Andréa, born 9 years later was raised by her mother in Marlborough, New Zealand.

Although their father, Kelly McBride, was not much part of their lives, it was his dying wish for the two sisters to be united. Once united, an affinity for wine and wine making were among the things the sisters discovered they had in common.



The Free Press caught up with the McBrides by phone ahead of their 7:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday appearance at House of Pure Vin, 1433 Woodward Ave., Detroit. The wine event is open to the public and the sisters will be there to sign bottles of wine. Their wines range from $16.99 to $19.99.

QUESTION: You story is unique in that you didn’t know each other a good part of your lives? When did you meet?

Robin McBride: It was 1999 and I was 25 and Andrea was 16. By the time the two of us met, our father had passed away. It was life changing. Growing up, it was just me and my mom and no extended family. So when I found out about Andréa, I knew my life was about to change. And then we met, we looked like each other, we had all these uncanny similarities, we were instant best friends, I couldn't have dreamed that the experience of finding a sister could get any better. We don’t have any other siblings. From the time we met and when Andrea moved to California to go to USC, that’s the time we got to know each other.

Q: What lead you to the wine business?

Andrea McBride: How we transitioned was basically a dream that we wanted to be wine makers and now we’ve been in the business for 12 years.

Robin: That was the catalyst. We each had a similar background in wining making regions. And we admire the craft of wine making and had hopes to do it ourselves one day.

Q: How did you get started? Was it difficult?

Robin: I think we just jumped in and we were naive about the lack of diversity and we just wanted to produce good wines. We started to see we were not like the average wine makers. As minorities and women, we knew we had to work harder. Our experience when we first started, our credibility was challenged a lot. We were in our early twenties and thirties ... the industry had never seen wine company owners like us before. Now there’s more women and women of color (in the business), we want to keep pushing that agenda and make that wine available.

Q: How would you describe your wine-making style?

Robin: We are big believers in sustainability because you get a higher quality grape and it’s right for the planet. Our manifestation is having wine to be a high quality go-to everyday wine for having people over. It also has attractive price points and can match up to a lot of different cuisines.

Q: What attracted you to sell your wines in the Detroit area?

Robin: Detroit is a great wine making community. House of Pure Vin is a fantastic wine tasting place and shop and we have a lot of friends in Detroit. It’s a great wine drinking city and we wanted to connect with people that we’ve connected with on social platforms.

Q: Which wines will you be launching in Detroit?

Andrea: Our wines are from two regions. A Sauvignon Blanc and Sparkling Rose from New Zealand. The other two are Chardonnay from the central coast of California and a red blend of Petite Shiraz and Merlot Zinfandel.

Q: The McBride Collection includes a sparkling Rose’ wine. What do you think about the current Rose trend?

Robin: I think Rose’ is great. It’s a such a versatile wine because you can drink it year-round.

Q: Do you both like the same kinds of wines?

Andrea: The profiles of wine we like to taste are similar. Both of use like barbecue and we make a barbecue sauce with our wine. We like fruit driven, cooler climate wines that express the environment where they were grown.

Contact Susan Selasky: 313-222-6872 or sselasy@freepress.com