How the McBride Sisters Are Building a New Legacy in California Wine Country

Often, real estate is about budget, timing, and — in California wine country — connections. Predestination isn’t usually part of the equation, but for winemakers Robin McBride and Andréa McBride John, it was hard to think of the estate they found in Carneros as anything but an act of divine intervention. It’s a theme that the half sisters are quite familiar with: They didn’t know each other growing up, but when they connected when Andréa was a teenager and Robin was in her 20s, they found they both shared a passion for winemaking. “We saw this enormous bronze letter M propped up against these eucalyptus trees,” Robin tells me, pointing to a weathered 50-foot sculpture that almost blends in with the overgrowth behind the estate’s tennis court. “That just kind of sealed the deal for us.”

Purchasing the 12-acre ranch is about finally building a home base for McBride Sisters Wine Company, the business the sisters cofounded in 2005. Robin grew up just a two-hour drive away in Monterey and gravitates more toward the operational side of the business. Andréa is a vocal promoter of the beautiful wines from New Zealand, where she was raised. In person, their chemistry and respect for one another is obvious with every conversation, whether it’s about sparkling wine, fashion, or interior design, making it impossible to overlook that this is, first and foremost, a business rooted in family.

Since 2014, the sisters have worked in tandem with winemaker Amy Butler to build a portfolio with impressive range, using grapes sourced from California and New Zealand vineyards. Among the many wines they make, there’s an $8 canned rosé meant for sunny days; a crispy, grassy $17 Sauvignon Blanc that plays nicely with oysters; a $25 Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend under the Black Girl Magic label; and soon, there will be a small-production reserve label to be known as Legacy. Andréa and Robin intend for there to be a McBride Sisters wine for every kind of drinker, and that genial, “come as you are” ethos is core to how the sisters intend to renovate M Ranch. It also drives their goals for the industry as a whole. “Seventeen years ago, people referred to us as ‘girls,’ and they would tell us who drank wine and who didn’t drink wine. They told us our ideas were stupid,” Robin says. “We’re doing what we can — as business owners who have a voice in the wine space — to make positive change.”

In 2019, they directed those feelings of frustration with the industry into a line of canned wines (aptly named SHE CAN) from which a portion of the proceeds support a fund that has, to date, awarded cash and services valued at more than $3 million to help women — especially women of color — pursue educational and professional opportunities in winemaking and sales. Last year, they partnered with the school of agriculture at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to kick off a viticulture and enology program; this year, the fund is focusing on helping women secure certifications with organizations like the Wine and Spirit Education Trust.

“We would love for this space to be a home base for those students,” Andréa tells me while her 4-year-old daughter, Meursault, runs behind us to pick wildflowers. Between the main house, two guest houses, and a pool house, the property — only the second Black-owned wine property in all of Napa Valley — is the perfect place for their friends, family, and SHE CAN fund recipients to come together. There’s also distinct potential when it comes to making wine from fruit grown on the estate; its proximity to San Pablo Bay especially excites Andréa, who grew up running through Sauvignon Blanc vines in the coastal region of Marlborough, New Zealand. Robin adds, “There are some good Chardonnay vines on the property that are about 20 years old. And I’d love to plant Pinot and some other light red varieties — anything that lends itself to sparkling.” She sounds less like someone about to embark on an intense renovation project than she does like a kid in a candy shop.

“I think we’ve actually kind of done everything backwards,” she says, gesturing toward the main house. “Most people start making wine with their high-end offerings. We didn’t really have the luxury of starting there, and our whole focus has been on how we can make high-quality wine as affordable as possible, so we started broadly, in grocery stores ... and then we got more confident.”

Ultimately, the McBride sisters have, along with the audience for their wines, come into their own; they’ve developed a sharper sense of what they want to drink and, through their activism, who they want to drink it with. “This property, to us, signifies the evolution of wine, as a business and as a product,” Robin says. “We didn’t have a place to call home before now.”

McBride Sisters wine pairings

We sent bottles of McBride Sisters wine to five talented chefs and invited them to create perfect recipes for pairing. Here are the delicious results.