Cassandra Schaeg: "Fresh Glass" is brought to you by Visit California.

California: dream big.

♪♪♪ Cassandra: The Conrad Prebys Foundation, Stone Brewing, Beyond Law, KPBS Explore, the Villegas Family Fund, Jonathan & Christina Barbarin, Gemma & Ross Blain, the Clarke Family, with additional contributions by "Fresh Glass" innovators.

♪♪♪ Cassandra: And viewers like you.

Thank you.

For a complete list of financial contributors, please visit www.FreshGlassProductions.com.

Cassandra: Today, we're headed up to my home away from home in the Highland Valley Wine Trail of Escondido.

This vineyard is owned by the only black woman winemaker in San Diego County.

Denise Clarke found a passion for winemaking later in life and turned her sprawling property into a vineyard called Altipiano Vineyard & Winery.

Denise Clarke: There's so much that goes into a bottle.

I don't wanna just make mediocre wine.

I want my wine to be great.

Cassandra: Her story is about a woman rising from the ashes and being reborn into a celebrated winemaker who's bringing generational wealth to her daughter and grandkids.

Tonisha DeLaCruz: I hope that I can just be able to make wine just as good as my mom.

♪♪♪ Cassandra: I'm Cassandra Schaeg, entrepreneur, adventurer, and wine and beer enthusiast.

Food, beverage, and entrepreneurship are growing with women and BIPOC innovators creating brands and making a name for themselves.

Teo Hunter: Welcome to Crowns Inglewood, baby.

Cassandra: Join me on adventures and discover why they started, what drives them, and how representation is the cornerstone of their passion.

Cassandra: What do you come to do?

all: Sip.

Cassandra: I'm creating a space for people who look like me to share their stories and their spirits.

This is "Fresh Glass."

♪♪♪ Cassandra: Altipiano was the first vineyard that I participated in with harvest.

Denise had me come up there at 4:30 in the morning with our boots on while she was yellin' at us about what grapes were good for harvest, but to spend the weekend up here and to really soak up everything that Altipiano is, is a great experience, and I can't wait for you to join me.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Cassandra: Denise.

Denise Clarke: Cassandra.

Cassandra: Hello, hello.

Cassandra: Denise has created a wine destination experience for her guests.

There are four rooms here, all named after wines, and each room is uniquely designed-- Denise: Your favorite room.

Cassandra: With antiques and beautiful Persian rugs, luxurious bedding, and a complimentary bottle of wine.

Denise: All right, well, let me get ready.

We'll see ya in a little bit.

Cassandra: All right.

Cassandra: For over a century, Highland Valley has been an agricultural center for San Diego County.

It began as vineyards and transitioned into avocado groves, and then, after the devastating fires in 2007, it has become a thriving wine community once again.

Denise: You look at your experiences, and everything I had experienced, little did I know, was preparing me for this moment.

So when the fire came through, everything burned except for our houses, and so Peter got busy and said, "Let's plant a vineyard."

He didn't know anything about it, and I didn't either, so when I had to start as a winemaker at 54, failure was not an option.

Now, truth be told, most of the time, they think it's my white husband that's the winemaker.

Cassandra: They think Peter's out there pressin' grapes?

Denise: Yes, and he's not, ha-ha-ha, but what we discovered was that there is something magical about farming.

There's so much that goes into a bottle.

I don't wanna just make mediocre wine.

I want my wine to be great.

Cassandra: So, "Altipiano" means?

Denise: Loosely translated for "high plain."

The thing that we liked about it was that it had "piano" in it, and, of course, we have a concert grand from the North Park Theatre.

The symbol actually came from my wonderful brother-in-law, David Billy.

He came up with a branding iron.

That's what our logo is.

Cassandra: You're the only black winemaker in San Diego County.

Denise: And that owns the vineyard.

Cassandra: It is unheard of-- Denise: It is.

Cassandra: When you look at statistics in the black wealth gap and what you just said, how important it is to own land.

Denise: The one thing that I did learn from my grandmothers, you never sell your land, ever.

I am so grateful that this is gonna pass on to my kids, but it's not just passing this on, it's that they have to understand how to hold onto this.

Cassandra: What's the legacy you wanna leave?

Denise: I want my daughter, Tonisha, to take over this place.

She doesn't need to be the winemaker if she doesn't want to be.

She just needs to know the difference of what great wine is, and she's smart.

She's the best of Peter and I. Cassandra: Denise's legacy is continuing through her daughter, Tonisha, who lives on the property with her four children.

She has a background in education and works with foster youth and children with special needs, but her love for wine and her desire to keep her mother's legacy thriving is at the heart of everything she does.

Cassandra: Tee!

Tonisha: What's up?

Heh-heh-heh.

Cassandra: How're you doin'?

Tonisha: I'm good.

How are you?

Cassandra: Good, whatcha got for me?

Tonisha: A little Super Tuscan for you.

Clink, clink, clink.

Cassandra: Clink, clink?

both: Clink, clink, clink.

Cassandra: I noticed that there is an influx of black people comin' up to the vineyard.

I'm, like, lookin' around, and I see a lot of us, and it's motivating, and it's inspiring.

Tonisha: Yeah.

Cassandra: Where do you think it comes from?

Tonisha: With the climate within the past two years, people have wanted to be able to do their best in supporting local businesses, let alone female-owned, let alone veteran, let alone black, so, you know, when you look at that list, it's like, "check, check, check-check-check-check- check-check."

And it gives, you know, at the height of the pandemic and at the height of everything that was going on with George Floyd and everything else, people will come here, and they would feel at peace, but that definitely was one of the driving forces behind it, and the things to be able to remind people was that we've been here.

We've had our established wine club.

Cassandra: How big is your wine club?

Tonisha: It's about 500 members.

More than half of them are out of the state, which is, you know, a big pat on our back.

Cassandra: It is.

Tonisha: It is our bread and butter.

We make our wine specifically for them, and everything that we have is--what you see behind me is what we sell to the public.

This is the only place where you can get my mom's wines.

This is your time when you come to learn.

Where can you go to someplace that's intimate, and the winemaker will sit down and go over the flavor profiles with you?

It's here at a boutique vineyard.

Cassandra: Yeah, she said you run things around here.

Tonisha: She said that?

Cassandra: Yes.

Tonisha: Awww.

Cassandra: And the future is you, and she made it very clear that she was doin' this for you and passing on generational wealth.

Tonisha: The first thing that I hope that I can do is just be able to make wine just as good as my mom, and that, in itself is, you know, stressful, and it's a difficult task.

I never realized the pressure or the burden.

In other words, she's the only black woman here in San Diego County--she's the only black woman in Southern California that's doing all of this, and so the stressors of constantly making everything--'cause everything is quality, that we're doing everything out of quality and not quantity, right?

I hope that I can continue that.

♪♪♪ Cassandra: Continuing that legacy and growing generational wealth is a key factor for success in the black community.

To gain insight, I visited Dr. Ricky Shabazz, president of San Diego City College.

He is committed to helping students understand and create generational wealth through education.

Dr. Ricky Shabazz: Yeah, so City College was the fifth community college established in the state.

We're in the eighth-largest city, San Diego.

Population of black folks in San Diego is about 6.4%, 6.5%.

Our student population is about 10%.

Most of our students come from Southeast San Diego, first generation, low income.

We also have a decent population of immigrants coming from countries like Ghana, Somalia.

We have students from all over the world.

Cassandra: Dr. Shabazz is helping to make sure their experience is rewarding and inclusive.

Dr. Shabazz: In addition to the students, the people who work here look like our students, and so that representation matters.

Certainly, as a black president, I'm making sure that all students know what the possibility is.

Cassandra: According to Brookings Institute, black households account for 13.4% of the U.S. population but holds just 4% of total U.S. household wealth.

Dr. Shabazz: When we talk about generational wealth, it really is about being able to access the middle class, the upper middle class, and then, ultimately, wealth that you can pass down to your children.

I have a 12-year-old daughter, and it's important that I leave her in a better situation than my parents left me in.

Cassandra: Denise Clarke, she is a black winemaker here in San Diego, and we're talkin' about the black wealth gap and how wide it is.

How do you, as a president, address that, that gap, and what are some of the things that people can do to be aware of that as well?

Dr. Shabazz: We know that there are a number of factors that lead into generational wealth.

One of them is owning land or owning real estate.

We know that the number of black folks who own land or real estate is significantly less than those of white, Asian, and other populations, and so probably the most important thing I can say is, when Grandma leaves us, don't sell her house, and if you do sell her house, invest in another property.

Don't spend the money.

In terms of college majors, being a college president, it's important to get students involved in STEM majors or STEAM majors.

Having a mentor is absolutely important.

And we are in California, one of the leading industries is agriculture, so agriculture is a very big part of generational wealth.

So when a lot of black folks left sharecropping, when they left the South during the Great Migration, they went to places like Detroit, Chicago, New York, or, in my case, in my family, they came from Louisiana and Texas to California.

Many of us moved away from farming, so it's great to hear that someone has a vineyard, but then they're also passing it down to future generations.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Cassandra: In this area, what's the typical varietal?

Denise: Rome grows here, Italian, Spanish varietals.

We just have a very special microclimate up in this area.

It was a great growing region prior to prohibition, and so we're really just going back to the roots of this valley.

Denise: This is ready, guys.

This is what I want.

Cassandra: She harvests in late summer and tests the pH, making sure the sugars are just right.

Denise: But, even with the science, you still gotta taste it because you can't make quality wine out of damaged fruit.

Cassandra: We moved to the barrel room, where Denise gave me a lesson on the chemistry of wine.

Denise: So this is the wines that I use to top all my barrels.

This has seen no oak whatsoever, okay?

Whereas this, right here, is a finished Sangiovese, okay?

This hasn't been blended with anything.

This is just pure juice.

It's good juice, but you always need a certain amount of topping wine in order to top your barrels, and you wanna use good wine, not bad wine, so there's no point in me oaking this.

Cassandra: Tell me if I'm wrong: you're keeping the skins on as long as you can-- Denise: Yes.

Cassandra: So it can develop acid?

Denise: Well, the acid is already in the skins, so if you chew--let's say, if you taste the fruit out there and you're gonna--may go like that, that's your acid that's already in those skins, right?

Once it comes in from the field, we're gonna put it through the destemmer.

It's going into a half-ton macro bin.

I take that normally up to 14 inches at most, which is around 1,100 pounds of skins and juice.

Cassandra: And then you're adding yeast?

And then, after this, we bottle?

Denise: Yes, once I've aged it for 24 months or longer, we're takin' the wine out, putting it in another vessel.

This is where Peter, you know, he has all his little fancy little tri-clovers and stuff and-- Cassandra: So Peter is involved in this process?

Denise: Yeah, we let him do a thing or two.

Cassandra: Okay, so he's in the bottling process.

Cassandra: It's unusual for small wineries to bottle their own wines, but Denise and Peter are hands-on in every aspect of their craft.

Peter Clarke: Once we release the pressure on the floating lift, that will allow the wine to come down, and it's pumped into our UNIBLOC.

Cassandra: Can I try?

Peter: Oh, you sure can.

This machine operates in a very unique way.

It's not only bottling wine, but, first, you'll notice there's an argon tank down here, and so, when you first put this up, it blows just a little bit of argon, roughly three times the area of the head space, so that, when you're filling it, the argon stays on the top, and when you cork it, that forces out whatever oxygen's left.

Cassandra: So that's the barrier to keep it from going bad?

Peter: That's right, right.

Oxygen and wine makes vinegar if there's too much of the oxygen.

The next step is to put a cork in it, so we put it in this machine, and you'll notice, this machine has two buttons.

That's to keep your fingers out of the way.

And now you can go over there.

When you're gonna lay it in there, you're gonna push it up, and let the top hit the end very briefly.

Bring it back, and then put it in but not all the way.

Now lay it in there with the neck to the left.

Pull the handle down just lightly, let it up, and you just finished.

Cassandra: I just bottled this?

Peter: You can sell that now.

Cassandra: It's $79.99, okay?

I just bottled my own bottle of Altipiano.

Cassandra: Denise and her family run the business from every angle.

"Wine & Spirits Magazine" reported less than 1% of U.S. wineries are black-owned or have black winemakers, a statistic that parallels the number of U.S. farmers who are black.

These statistics show the lack of equity in representation and is a call to action to increase awareness.

A champion in this area is Donna DeBerry, president and CEO of the County of San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce.

Donna is a pioneer in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

She believes black entrepreneurs need enterprise, education, networking, and resources to create generational wealth.

Cassandra: Give us a snapshot of what diversity, equity, and inclusion means.

Donna DeBerry: So, you know, when we talk about diversity, it's really all about who we area, so the diversity of culture and experiences and skill sets and that's-- it's about who we area.

When we talk about equity, it's about what we do, making sure that we promote systems and have equitable opportunities, and for people--and especially for people of color.

Cassandra: As a black entrepreneur in San Diego, how important is participation of the black culture in San Diego to be entrepreneurs within this county?

Donna: Well, that's critically important because, when you think about the growth here in this county and we're all comin' out of Covid, and we're looking at how is it, San Diego County, going to economically grow?

Black entrepreneurs are critically a component of that, and so entrepreneurship is over 80% of the business here in San Diego, along with other--you know, with corporations and things here in San Diego, but when you think about entrepreneurship, it is the engine of the economy here in San Diego County.

Cassandra: Having a black woman own a winery, make wine, and position this to then go to her daughter is unheard of.

How do we increase generational wealth in the black community?

Donna: When you think about the data points where blacks are only 5% of the wealth in the nation, I guess the big question is, why is that?

Black people need to understand the importance of mentorship and sponsorship and access.

Access to networks are just so important.

Listen, at the end of the day, your net worth is only as good as your network, and along with access to networks is also access to capital, and so that is a big thing, a big gap that's missing for black entrepreneurs.

How do black wine owners get access to capital?

How do black wine owners get access to networks and access to other wine owners and sponsors?

But, listen, if you have a good mentor in the wine industry, someone that can take you and groom you--so, you know, it's really important for blacks, if we're gonna close that wealth gap, we've gotta be at the table.

Cassandra: What's the legacy that you wanna leave?

Donna: First of all, I wanna raise millions of dollars for our black youth.

And now, the next thing I wanna do is make sure that we develop women and people of color to make sure that they become leaders in their own world, in their own space, whether that's entrepreneurship or corporate America, right?

And the third thing that I want to leave is some good wine for some folks to drink.

That's my legacy.

Cassandra: Do you have any words of encouragement for somebody like me?

Donna: When you hear the word no, find the yes in the no.

Cassandra: Find the yes in the no?

Donna: Find the yes in the no.

Cassandra: Find the yes in the no.

Donna: When people tell me no, I go, "Okay, there's a yes somewhere.

Let's start with maybe."

"No" is too harsh, too harsh, but find the yes in the no.

Cassandra: Denise surely found the yes in the no on her journey.

Her perseverance has made Altipiano a success, but the help of her family has made it feel like a home.

Cassandra: I'm very gun-shy when it comes to the family business.

What's the dynamic of the family business here at Altipiano?

Denise: I think everybody pretty much knows their roles.

I don't think we plow over each other 'cause we all have very strong personalities.

Tonisha: But in terms everything else, it's kind of like she leads, we follow.

Cassandra: I know, I've heard what people say, thinking, Peter, you're the winemaker and, you know, because we all know that that's not the case.

Peter: I could no more make wine than the man on the moon, and I go out of my way to tell that, and people just don't believe it.

It's the whole problem of when something is happening differently, but it doesn't really fit your idea of how it should be.

Cassandra: You know, I used to come up here on Sundays.

I'd come up here, and there'd be so many-- the diversity was phenomenal.

How does that make you feel to see the diverse wine drinkers come up here to support you?

Tonisha: I think it is a branch of who we are.

I mean, look at this table, right?

I mean, even if you look, you know, behind the scenes of everybody that's here, this is really the--everyone that's here that, you know, helped put all this together looks like our family.

We could--oh, this could be a family gathering in itself, right?

No one ever knows who's related or who is not related.

You know, we have my cousin Alexis that comes up to help, at times, and, you know, it throws people off 'cause I'll sit there and say, "Oh, did you meet cousin Alexis?

And cousin Alexis presents, you know, blond hair, blue eyes, right?

It is everything that everyone needs to see here, especially and specifically that we are in Escondido, and, really, just, again, what we talk about, you know, the fact that this is a branch of who we are, inclusive.

Cassandra: Creating generational wealth is unheard of in the black community when you look at statistics.

What you're doing in San Diego County is unheard of.

What you're doing in the state of California is unheard of.

What you're doing in the United States is unheard of.

How does it feel to be a part of history?

Denise: Gosh, I come from a long line of trailblazing women that created their own energy, brought their own table and brought their own chair.

My great-grandmother, she always used to say, "You have to create your own synergy."

One thing is believing and having your family that believe in you, that support you, and you just take that leap of faith, and the biggest thing, for me, is to remember where I came from, and that's something I will never forget.

I'm humbled by the fact that what my husband and I and my daughter, we are creating here, I'm humbled by all of my family that has contributed to this place, those that are in heaven, and those who are not.

This place is special, and it's bigger than just us sitting at this table.

Tonisha: When people come here, we want everyone to feel like they are part of our family, that they feel comfortable while they're here, that they enjoy the experience.

Peter: It kind of provides a place where you can accept the world the way it is and talk about it in a non-confrontational, just accepting-everything atmosphere.

Denise: I just celebrated 66 years a few weeks ago, and, you know, my job's not done yet.

Cassandra: Cheers to that.

♪♪♪ Cassandra: I spent the weekend here at Altipiano, delving into the winemaking process, from the buds to the flowering to being able to bottle wine.

This has been a phenomenal experience.

female: This is my go-to hang-out place, and it's a hidden gem, right under our noses.

Cassandra: The journey is much more than just opening the cork.

It's about understanding the importance of generational wealth in the black community and the love behind producing some of the world's phenomenal wines.

♪♪♪ Cassandra: I'm Cassandra Schaeg.

Thank you for joining me on this episode of "Fresh Glass."

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Cassandra: "Fresh Glass" is brought to you by Visit California.

California: dream big.

♪♪♪ Cassandra: The Conrad Prebys Foundation, Stone Brewing, Beyond Law, KPBS Explore, the Villegas Family Fund, Jonathan & Christina Barbarin, Gemma & Ross Blain, the Clarke Family, with additional contributions by "Fresh Glass" innovators.

♪♪♪ Cassandra: And viewers like you.

Thank you.

For a complete list of financial contributors, please visit www.FreshGlassProductions.com.

Cassandra: On the next episode of "Fresh Glass."

Inglewood, California, is known as the City of Champions.

Teo Hunter: Welcome to Crowns Inglewood, baby.

Beny Ashburn: Welcome to Crowns Inglewood!

Cassandra: I spent the day with women and BIPOC entrepreneurs dedicated to sharing their resources, space, and knowledge to close societal gaps.

female: Are we approaching this space to really empower, really?

If you just have access and space, sky's the limit.

Cassandra: Tune in to the next episode of "Fresh Glass."

female announcer: Support for this program comes from the KPBS Explore Local Content fund, supporting new ideas and programs for San Diego.

Cassandra: To learn more and support our guests, visit us at www.freshglassproductions.com.

♪♪♪