…featuring Theodora Lee!
"Tuesday was a record-breaking day for Theodora Lee, the owner and winemaker of Theopolis Vineyards. Fifty separate wine orders came in. “I have never received 50 orders in one day,” says Lee, who produces just 800 cases of wine a year from the vineyard she owns in Mendocino County’s Yorkville Highlands.
Lee is scrambling to fill the orders now. In addition to running her winery, she works as an employment lawyer with the firm Littler Mendelson, which has been busier than ever dealing with coronavirus-related employment issues. She also happens to live in Oakland, where protesters have taken to the streets to condemn the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It’s been a week, she says, where she’s reminded more than ever that “being black in America is a burden.”
She’s grateful for the outpouring of public support for black-owned businesses right now. But as someone who’s used to being the only black woman in the room at wine tastings, Lee is all too aware that this moment could be fleeting. The wine industry has a long way to go if it is to be truly equitable."