It is critically important for us to take concrete actions to facilitate the changes we seek, both in our own community of Sonoma County as well as the broader wine community. We have outlined our first set of actions below.

Gary Farrell intends to work closely with our industry associations to develop a series of panel discussions on how we can address the racial disparities within the wine industry and our community. We wish to focus on the initial steps we can take to begin dismantling racism in the wine community. We hope to have these panels moderated by a nationally recognized black wine media professional to be named, these panels should be comprised of black wine professionals from throughout the industry including winemakers, critics and owners.

Black wine media and social influencers are incredibly under-represented in our industry, they deserve a seat at our table. Our series of Sunday Suppers & winemaker virtual tastings have given us an opportunity to engage with a small group and break bread over a shared love of food and wine. We plan to use this platform as an opportunity for winemakers, owners and hospitality professionals to sit down with those in the media and influencers to discuss opportunities to work with and support Black Influencers in the lifestyle, travel, wine and food channels. Learn more about how you can support BIPOC Influencers from Shakera Jones, Shanika Hillocks and Dorothy J. Gaiter

We are committed to supporting young people of color in their quest for a college education. To that end, Gary Farrell will donating $10,000 to Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute Wine Industry Scholars Program (WISP) program to support a first-generation, low-income student whose parents are or have been employed in the wine industry, in a wine business, or in a position that is agriculturally-related to the wine industry. Thanks to a generous matching donation from the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, our donation will stretch to sponsor two students for their complete four-year education. Learn more by clicking HERE

Our employees stand with the Black Community, and Gary Farrell Winery stands side by side with our employees. We recognize that as a business we cannot remain silent, and we encourage our employees to make their voices heard as well. Through the remainder of the year, we will be matching our employee’s donations up to $10,000 to 501c3 organizations whose goals include bringing equal justice and an end to systemic racism against the black, indigenous and communities of People of Color.

We have signed the letter on the American Sustainable Business Counsel website, confronting racism. We stand with other businesses in condemning violence and racism and invite others to do so. Learn more by clicking HERE

We encourage our fellow wine professionals to join us in sustaining this momentum to take a permanent stand against the systemic racial injustices in our industry. Please reach out to us to learn how you can participate and take action.

As we continue to learn and grow, we will be adding additional initiatives, knowledge and opportunities to take action to our blog.