Inside the $300 Billion Wine Industry_ How Donae Burston Launched a Black-Owned Wine Company-MP3

Rashad Bilal (0:00)

Gonna be a very spirited conversation.

Donae Burston (0:02)

I want to build my own legacy in the wine and spirits industry.

Troy Millings (0:06)

How cost-intensive was this journey?

Donae Burston (0:09)

Bank accounts, savings, credit cards, all of it was maxed out.

Troy Millings (0:12)

How did you get American Airlines to convince them to say, look, we need to have this inside of the arena?

Donae Burston (0:16)

I mean, Miami is a rosé culture, so it didn't take a lot.

Troy Millings (0:19)

I got to talk about it.

Donae Burston (0:21)

When I was there, we were archenemies. It was fun to go back and, excuse my French, shit on people.

Troy Millings (0:26)

What are the marketing goals by territory?

Donae Burston (0:28)

A lot of balancing the nightclub world and then catering to the super wealthy.

Troy Millings (0:33)

Allow equity stakeholders to come in, or we're going to set a whole thing?

Donae Burston (0:36)

I never set my goals on being the number one black-owned rosé brand in the world. No, I want to be the number one rosé brand in the world.

Rashad Bilal (0:43)

Welcome back, EYL. This is going to be a very spirited conversation.

Troy Millings (0:49)

All pun intended.

Rashad Bilal (0:50)

Yeah.

Troy Millings (0:51)

I like what you did there.

Rashad Bilal (0:52)

Yes, yes.

Troy Millings (0:53)

That's clever.

Rashad Bilal (0:54)

It might be the first time we ever spoke to somebody who had their own wine company. Is it?

We spoke to a few people in the spirits industry, but not wine.

Troy Millings (1:01)

No, not at this level.

Rashad Bilal (1:02)

Yeah.

Troy Millings (1:03)

I mean, when you talk about the fastest growing.

Donae Burston (1:05)

Yeah, this is the first.

Rashad Bilal (1:08)

So Donae Burston.

Troy Millings (1:09)

Yeah.

Rashad Bilal (1:10)

Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, right?

Donae Burston (1:11)

Absolutely. Be more stand up.

Troy Millings (1:12)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rashad Bilal (1:13)

So you guys met, right?

Troy Millings (1:16)

So actually, Nicole, shout out to.

Rashad Bilal (1:19)

Nicole Russell?

Troy Millings (1:19)

No, no, Nicole Spence at Black Effect. He was like, hey, Troy, there's this guy you have to meet. He has an amazing story, amazing, man. She's saying this like in the spring. I'm like, Nicole, you know we got this big event that we're doing. So we're kind of like on a freeze right now for the interviews. But as soon as we're done with that, let's make it happen. And so she just kept telling me, I'm like, hey, you got anybody? You know, just when we're done? Yeah, I got this guy down. Yeah, you got to meet him. You got to meet him. He's from Baltimore. He's a Clark grad. You got to meet him. He's crazy. I'm like, all right, let's do it. And so we finally got it on the calendar. So I'm happy that you're here. I'm happy that the spirits are here as well.

Donae Burston (1:53)

Yeah, man. I'm excited to be here.

Troy Millings (1:55)

It's an impressive story. And he came prepared with the right kicks.

Rashad Bilal (1:58)

So, so let's get into this. So you have your own wine company.

Troy Millings (2:05)

Yep.

Rashad Bilal (2:06)

This is the wine right here.

Troy Millings (2:07)

I'm assuming.

Donae Burston (2:08)

Look at that wine company. That's the Rosé and the Blanc.

Rashad Bilal (2:09)

A Rosé and a white wine, right?

Donae Burston (2:12)

Yep.

Rashad Bilal (2:12)

Okay.

So let's rewind the story a little bit. Where did your passion for wine come into play? And how did you go about actually becoming an entrepreneur in the space?

Donae Burston (2:25)

Yeah. So I worked in the wine and spirits industry since 2001

Started back with Cavassier, during the past Cavassier days at the AID Rush, which was a Russell Simmons agency. So we did all the street promotions in Atlanta. From there, moved over to Moet Hennessy. At the time, it was just Moet and Hennessy as the ambassador in Atlanta. And I was doing the time when the clubs in the city was on fire, when the music industry was hot down there. Right? So it was like...

Troy Millings (2:49)

It was like the MF days.

Donae Burston (2:50)

Oh yeah, exactly.

Okay. So it was like the closest thing to be in the music industry without being in it, because listen, we'd be throwing all the parties, the liquor companies would sponsor all the parties. And I just fell in love with like that lifestyle. Like it was business, but it was still a lot of fun. So I did that, then moved to Miami with them. And once I got to Miami is when the Champagne World took over. So it was like I worked on Klee Co. I worked on Moet. I worked on Dom Perignon. I was like, oh, this is the move. This is my lane. I left there and then did a stint at Ace of Spades for three years, Latin America. Yeah, you might have heard of that.