NBA Players Are Making Wine More Inclusive

"This is a safe wine space," said Master of Wine Vanessa Conlin as she introduced the day's coursework. Conlin, the Head of Wine at the wine curation siteWine Access, was speaking to the recipients of NBA player Josh Hart's Diversity In Wine Scholarship Program. They had all gathered over Zoom for a class to prepare for the Level 1 exam of the WSET (vwin德赢ac米兰葡萄酒和精神教育信托). As folks began introducing themselves, it became clear that the range of experience, in both wine and life, was vast. There were mothers and nurses, plant physiologists and law students. There were people who planned to use this program to switch careers and those who wanted a way to fill the long, empty hours of quarantine.

Hart, a shooting guard for the New Orleans Pelicans, formed this scholarship with Wine Access in an effort to make the wine industry more welcoming and inclusive—particularly for members of the BIPOC community who have historically been left out. Hart is a wine lover himself (he even has anInstagramdedicated to sharing his favorite bottles), and he's one of the more recent players to become an outspoken member of the NBA's unofficialwine club—a club that's still going strong, as demonstrated by thehundreds of bottlesthat were shipped to the league's "bubble," the sports complex in Orlando that safely housed teams for the 2020 season. Stars like Dwyane Wade, a three-time NBA champion, have been at the forefront of the NBA's wine obsession for years. But players aren't just drinking wine among themselves anymore; they're channeling their personal passions into making the industry more inclusive.

"I love wine now, but if I hadn't been a Laker, my being in the wine world probably wouldn't have happened," Hart said, reflecting on his time with Los Angeles' team. "As an NBA player with a platform, I can help minorities who don't have the resources, or who are nervous or hesitant, to get into the wine space."

Beyond awarding a WSET Level 1 course to 100 recipients, Hart's program will sponsor five students in Level 2 and three students in Level 3; those top three will get to travel to Napa with Hart for a wine-filled weekend. "My dream is for people in the program to further their pursuit of a career in wine," Hart said. "Hopefully we keep this program going, and in 10, 15, 20 years, there will be a winemaker in Napa who first started with the WSET from this partnership."

在更直接的任期内，哈特希望影响葡萄酒本身的感知。vwin德赢ac米兰他说：“我试图改变葡萄酒周围的刻板印象，以适合老，有钱，白人。”vwin德赢ac米兰

Other players, like Wade, share this goal. "One of the reasons I got into the wine industry was to change the common misconception of wine as pretentious," Wade said. "I didn't grow up knowing what wine is. Wine was perceived in this really uppity kind of way and I wanted to be a part of showing that it's not that—of respecting what goes into making one simple bottle of wine."

In 2014, Wade created his own wine brand,韦德酒窖, in partnership with Napa's Pahlmeyer winery. The next year, while on vacation, Wade was photographed sitting on a banana boat and toasting with red wine with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul. The group became known as the Banana Boat Crew, and that moment ignited a wine frenzy within the league. Ever since, Wade has been a role model for others looking to get into the business.

"Just start buying wine," Wade said. "Start asking questions. Start researching. I'm no different than anyone else. I didn't go to school for wine. I'm not a winemaker. It's just about having something you enjoy and jumping into it."

除了成为所有葡萄酒的大使外，韦德还利用他的平台来支持BIPOC社区。vwin德赢ac米兰与NBA传奇人物（和葡萄酒爱好者）克里斯·保罗（Chris Paul）vwin德赢ac米兰和卡梅洛·安东尼（Carmelo Anthony）一起，韦德（Wade）创立了一个非营利组织，The Social Change Fund, which champions issues such as criminal justice reform and economic equity. Through initiatives like donating portions of Wade Cellars bottle sales to the fund, Wade has been able to bring these two passions together.

Wade has also created space for other players to follow in his footsteps. One such player is Miami Heat forwardMaurice "Moe" Harkless. Last year, Harkless turned hiswebsite现在进入一个名为Black Lives的黑人拥有企业的枢纽。他开始在勒布朗·詹姆斯（LeBron Jvwin德赢ac米兰ames）的平台上主持“葡萄酒星期三”，并与他合作The Prisoner Wine Company，这是一家纳帕山谷酒庄，其母公司vwin德赢ac米兰Constellation Brands向同等司法倡议捐赠了100万美元，该司法倡议是一项非营利组织，倡导2020年6月在刑事司法系统中进行平等待遇。

"I want to eliminate the stigma of wine as a snobby, high-class experience," Harkless said. "Wine is for everybody to enjoy."

Advocating for diversity within the wine world is one thing. Showing up as part of the solution is another ball game—and that's what these NBA stars have been doing. They're proof that, in the words of Wine Access CEO Joe Fisch, "Representation matters. It helps when you have someone who looks like you doing something within the industry."

ForChanning Frye, a former power forward-center who won the 2016 championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers, it's all about perspective. "I don't see Black guys pouring me wine. I don't see Black guys as winemakers. I don't see Black guys as sommeliers," Frye said. "Wine culture is very white. It's a fact."

弗莱（Frye）在餐桌上没有长大后看到葡萄酒。vwin德赢ac米兰即使是成年人，他也认为他不可能进入葡萄酒业务。vwin德赢ac米兰但是他一直在问问题，品尝新的葡萄品种，探索新区域以及进行对话，尤其是与其他NBA球员。

2016年,弗莱和他的克利夫兰骑士队的队友s, which included LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, earned themselves the nickname "the wine team" because of the Cavaliers-wide obsession with wine. Frye particularly loves Oregon wines, a passion he started to develop in 2007, when he played for the Portland Trail Blazers. In 2020, Frye created选择的家庭葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰与基于威拉米特谷的酒庄合作vwin德赢ac米兰L'Angolo Estate.

Throughout the past year, Frye and his Chosen Family team have been asking themselves a question: "What can we do to make this industry better?" Frye's answer: "I want my daughters to see people of color making wine, having successful wine labels, growing their own grapes."

为了实现这一目标，Frye一直在制定一项计划，并于今年春季发起，称为“ One Barrel Challenge”。俄勒冈州的七vwin德赢ac米兰个酿酒厂，包括弗莱（Frye）的家族，将出售一桶葡萄酒或300瓶的内容，并将所有收益捐赠给Maurice Lucas Foundation. Lucas was a five-time NBA All-Star (Frye both played against and was coached by Lucas), and the foundation created in his honor works to support Black youth in Portland. In years to come, Frye hopes to use the One Barrel Challenge as a platform to promote inclusion within and access to the wine industry.

"The wine industry should want different perspectives, cultures, and colors to be there because those perspectives are going to challenge it to constantly evolve," Frye said. "With the One Barrel Challenge, we are planting a seed. We're bettering the business so that we can play with a full deck of cards. Right now, we're only playing with half a deck."

There's another NBA player involved in the One Barrel Challenge,CJ McCollum，是波特兰开拓者队的警卫。麦考勒姆与俄勒冈州发行了他的第一杯酒vwin德赢ac米兰阿德斯海姆葡萄园, aPinot Noir, under theMcCollum Heritage 91brand in September 2020; his second bottling, a rosé, arrives this month. Like many of the other players, McCollum is hyper aware of the unapproachability of wine.

"People are afraid of it," he said. "You go to restaurants, they bring you the wine menu, it's intimidating. I want to make people more comfortable with wine, show them that you can not know about wine and still enjoy it."

McCollum has already made some headway with family and friends, to the point where even his grandma, who "is not a big wine drinker at all," will request a glass of Heritage 91. "As a Black man who plays in the NBA, I'm able to not only expose people in my profession to wine, but people from my childhood and in my family that normally wouldn't approach it," he said. "If a kid from Canton, Ohio who didn't like wine can evolve in this space, I think anyone can."

Both as individuals and as a collective, NBA players are making the wine world a more accessible space. "Wine has felt like an exclusive industry historically," McCollum said. "I think there's so much opportunity to increase exposure and diversify the wine industry, and that will improve the industry overall."

这就是为什么长期以来一直专注于葡萄酒教育的葡萄酒的团队对乔什·哈特（Josh Harvwin德赢ac米兰t）的奖学金感到非常兴奋的原因之一。菲斯说：“我们错过了潜在的葡萄酒爱好者的巨大人群。”vwin德赢ac米兰哈特（Hart）分享的Fisch的希望是，该奖学金不断增长，激发了越来越多的人在葡萄酒中脱颖而出。vwin德赢ac米兰今年，有100名接收者。10年？1,000名收件人。

The NBA's obsession with wine has blossomed into a platform for sparking social change, and the players themselves are driving a new future for the industry—one that's equitable, open-minded, and reflects the diversity of wine itself.

弗莱说：“ NBA是世界上最包容性，最多样化的企业之一。”“为什么葡萄酒不能那样vwin德赢ac米兰？”