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The McBride Sisters Wine Company—the brainchild of Robin McBride and Andréa McBride John—has collaborated with an unlikely partner—Colgate Optic White. It should not come as a surprise.
In the wine world, the McBride Sisters are revered for being on the forefront of the wine industry, taking risks and breaking boundaries. It’s arguably the bedrock of their relationship, a bond that easily could have never been formed let alone known.
The real life sisters were born 9 years apart to different mothers and raised in wine regions a world away—Robin in Monterey, California and Andréa in Aotearoa, New Zealand—unaware that the other existed.
It was a deathbed request of their estranged father when the two learned about each other from a letter that arrived in their respective mailboxes from an aunt. The two met for the first time in 1999 at LaGuardia Airport in New York. At the time, Robin was 25 years old, Andréa was 16.
In the 25 years since that first meeting, they have gone on to be inseparable siblings, building on a shared love of wine to create McBride Sisters Wine Company, the largest black-owned and women-founded wine company in the United States. As leaders, the two emphasize equity, innovation and exploration, which includes an exclusive partnership they recently inked with Colgate, the first of its kind between a wine company and a teeth whitening brand. We caught up with the sisters to talk about their history, collaboration, and what they say is a fearless approach to life.
The seeds for McBride Sisters Wine Company are rooted in the moments after the two met for the first time. Searching for connection while coming to terms with how their lives changed forever, the two quickly coalesced around a shared love of wine. Coincidentally, the two had grown up in coastal farming regions known for cultivating wines, Robin on California’s celebrated Central Coast with wine-making families in Monterey’s wine country, and Andréa in the Wairau Valley in New Zealand’s famous Marlborough wine region where her uncle was a wine grape grower.
In 2005, the dynamic duo took the leap into the wine world importing and distributing wines from New Zealand, personally selling them to accounts in California. Five years later, they launched their first wine company, making wines in the New Zealand region where Andréa grew up. In 2013, they launched a second in the California region Robin called home.
"Traditionally in the wine industry you make wine from one specific region and place. It was very odd when we came along and started making wines from different regions, let alone different hemispheres. But this is authentic to us, our sisterhood and our story, and we were literally breaking the boundaries,” says Andréa.
In 2016, the two decided to bring their burgeoning collection of wines from the two regions under one brand they called the McBride Sisters Collection.
“We are hauntingly obsessed with wine,” Andréa says. “And so it was so obvious and clear to us that there was nothing else that we could do. I don't even know how to explain that. In an irrational way, we both clearly could just see this and nothing else mattered and nothing else would do and things haven't changed.”
In keeping with this trailblazing and confident spirit the two have towards innovation and exploration, the McBride Sisters decided earlier this year to pursue a collaboration with Colgate pairing red wine with a teeth whitening pen.
“Honestly the biggest driver I think is the McBride sisters have a lot of teeth,” Andréa jokes. “It's a McBride thing. Our dad has a big grill and we love food and wine, but we also love to have a bright, beautiful smile.”
On October 9, the McBride Sisters and Colgate® released a limited edition set that includes a bottle of the McBride Sisters Collection Red Blend outfitted with a custom label, a pair of Colgate® Optic White® Overnight Teeth Whitening Pens and a compact mirror. It was an opportunity for Robin and Andréa to provide fans with a way to enjoy a great wine night, without compromising a flawless smile.
The sisters describe the wine as an award-winning red blend from their collection of celebrated Central Coast wines. The bottle is merlot dominant, rounded out with cabernet sauvignon for bursts of cherry, plum and vanilla that pairs well with a variety of cuisines, is great for a party, but can also be enjoyed glass in hand while relaxing on the couch.
To the McBrides, the collaboration is a statement that keeps with their ethos of taking risks, so when the opportunity with Colgate was presented, Robin says the sisters embraced it as a way to showcase their products in an innovative way.
“It's outside of the box. It's not the norm.” Robin says. “We just lead the McBride Sisters way I guess if you want to call that…And when we started talking about this concept, we were like, this is right up our alley, we're in!"
Shop the McBride Sisters and Colgate collaboration kit now on McBrideSisters.com, while supplies last. Enjoy responsibly.