Calif. Families McBride McBride Sisters Wine Contact
I saw a bottle of McBride Sisters Sparkling Brute Rose from New Zeland at Trader Joes and since we have McBride relatives in New Zeland, I like New Zealand wines and have been trying roses recently I thought I'd get it and see if there was any connection.
It turns out they are not cousins but have an interesting story.
I liked the wine so got several more bottles for gifts.

Even though they are not part of this historic California family I decided to add this to our genealogy page.
They were born in California and are pioneers in a way, so I'm making them honorary members of our clan.

Here's their Story.

It turns out Robin and Andrea were half-sisters one raised in Marlborough, New Zealand, and the other in Monterey CA, both near grape-growing areas.

They were both born in Los Angeles. Their Mother's raised them alone as only childs and they rarely saw their father Kelly McBride. Andrea spent most of her childhood in New Zealand with her mother who she lost at an early age and was raised in a foster home in New Zealand. When she was 11, in 1995, she received a call from the father she didn't know. "I was at home watching cartoons when the phone rang and a voice said, 'Hey, Andrea, this is your dad.' And he told me I had a sister," Andrea recalled.

When their Father got cancer in 1996 he asked his sister, who lived in Georgia to see if she could locate Robin who lived in the US, but they didn't know where. They searched motor vehicle records and started to write letters. Robin got one of the letters and contacted her Aunt.

As luck would have it, Andrea was visiting from New Zealand and sitting next to her aunt when Robin called. So the two sisters immediately talked and decided to meet at LaGuardia Airport in New York the next day.

"We didn't know what each other looked like. But we knew that we were both biracial," Robin said. [Kelly McBride was an African American, so we are not cousins ed.] "And when I was coming down the jetway, I looked up and thought I saw my reflection and then I realized it was Andrea. We definitely do look like sisters."

When she graduated from highschool Andrea moved to California to go to USC.
They got to know each other and with their shared intrest in wine decided to start a wine business by importing wine from New Zealand.
Their new endeavor had a couple of iterations along the way.

It culminated in The McBride Sisters Collection, launched in May 2017.
Over time, McBride Sisters has grown into what is not only the largest Black-owned wine company in the United States, but one of the most inclusive, accessible, socially aware and sustainable wineries in the country.

Andrea had spent some of her summers as a kid in New Zealand helping out at a vineyard owned by her uncle, she takes the lead on vineyard management, with an emphasis on sustainability.

"We try to be in tune with nature -- doing things like planting cover crops that attract beneficial insects and watching the amount of water we use," she said.

Robin tilts a bit toward winemaking.

There are several articles about them you can find, since two black women running a winery is kind of unique.

See: A short intro on Vimeo
Sisters meet up years later and a wine business is born | Milwaukee Journal Sentinal
mcbridesisters.com/Sisters-Story
Their recent Blog entries have advice about holiday celebrations. Other entries have recipies