Arts, culture come together at Black-owned winery

MINT HILL, N.C. — Ebony Wine & Spirits launched mostly online in 2020 as the first Black-owned wine brand in North Carolina.

“I really fell in love with wine when I was in college,” said owner Camillya Masunda.

The love ends at drinking wine for many, but not for Masunda.

“And the more I dug, the more I realized that women of color were not in the wine scene,” she told Channel 9. “Like we were just, you know, always buying wine. But this wine, we knew nothing about it.”

Masunda decided she didn’t want to just consume. She wanted to create.

She visited wineries and vineyards around the country to figure out flavor profiles.

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Ebony Wine & Spirits Owner Camillya Masunda

“We created a rose for the rose lovers,” she said. “We created a red blend for the cab lovers. We created a Moscato for, you know, just the sweet, semi-sweet lovers. And then we created something that was an ode to my heritage, which was the Kinshasa. We call it, ‘the taste of the sun.’”

Masunda has curated an urban winery filled with pieces of artwork highlighting the creativity, ingenuity, and influence of Black people around the world.

The wine is her art.

“My vision was to create a space that allowed the arts and wine to come together and to marry well,” she said. “I think this is nostalgia because you can remember all the movies you fell in love with.”

The unique blend also stands out as Mint Hill’s first Black-owned art gallery where local artists can showcase their pieces.

“We have so much through traffic that we want to be able to support our local community for others to patronize and support their products,” Masunda said. “We are Ebony Wine & Spirits and we celebrate Black unity and culture around the globe.”

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