WINE BUSINESS DIVERSITY PLEDGE


By signing the Willamette Valley Wine Business Diversity Pledge, I am an owner or principal at my Willamette Valley wine business committing to lead a specific set of actions for my business which will:

Create a more diverse workforce and management team by finding diverse qualified candidates for hiring opportunities, which may include background research to:

  • Reach underrepresented communities by publicizing our vineyard, cellar, hospitality, management, office job and internship opportunities to underrepresented populations found beyond wine job boards.

  • Engage in providing support and mentorship to wine professionals of color.

  • Review our job position descriptions and postings for implicit bias and cultural barriers to entry.

  • Explore diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion (DEBI) education for our teams and empower employees to manage boundaries with customers and partners.

  • Foster workplaces that enable challenging conversations about DEBI.

Move beyond the current white, male, and able-bodied wine region media landscape. This may include steps such as:

  • Presenting images, stories, and programs that welcome all wine enthusiasts to our tasting rooms, events, cellars, vineyards, and offices.

  • Including stories and imagery in our media and advertising that challenge the status quo image of the “typical” wine drinker.

  • Ensuring prospective customers see themselves represented in our stories, articles, cover photos, and marketing.

Seek out and consider suppliers owned or operated by underrepresented communities.

  • When making key supplier decisions (e.g., grapes, bottling, sales and marketing), we will investigate and consider businesses owned or operated by underrepresented communities.

  • We will share diverse supplier information with The Willamette Valley Wine Business Diversity Pledge participants.

We will share our experiences with other Willamette Valley wine businesses.

We recognize that the commitments above won’t undo a long history of bias, discrimination and inequity in Oregon and the US, nor will it solve our challenges overnight, but we believe change can start with us as individuals leading our Willamette Valley wine businesses to create incremental progress toward building a more inclusive wine industry.  We hope this list of participating Willamette Valley wine businesses will grow over time, and we invite other Willamette Valley wine businesses to join us.

We believe the wine industry will reach its full potential when it represents everyone who drinks wine. By committing to The Willamette Valley Wine Business Diversity Pledge and advocating for diversity and inclusion within our workplaces, industries, and broader business community, we create a wine landscape that includes and empowers everyone.

We commit to sharing our progress with a representative from an external advisory council (to be formalized in Q320 and communicated to participating wine businesses) to evaluate our progress towards weaving a culture and operating environment of diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion into our Willamette Valley wine businesses.  We will track our own progress, share regular updates with the representative, and hold ourselves accountable to the goals we have set in The Willamette Valley Winery Business Diversity Pledge.

We will support other Willamette Valley wine businesses in their pursuit of inclusion: by building on our culture of collaboration, we will enhance existing programs and commitments to better serve the greater wine community.

Signed,

(Company Principal Representative, Business Name)

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

May I sign on as an individual or does the owner of the winery need to sign on?

Signatories will be assumed to speak on behalf of the entire brand. This commitment is intended for business owners and leaders, because it includes executive-level decisions that employees don’t typically have the authority to approve. We strongly recommend discussing this pledge with your entire team and then designating one person to sign for the brand.

If my AVA has signed on, does that mean my winery is already part of the pledge?

No. If an AVA has signed on, it means they pledge to take action as an organization—not on behalf of their winery members. Regardless of whether your AVA has signed on, each brand should sign individually based on their own capability and philosophy. 

Can wine businesses outside of wineries also sign on?

Yes. Any Willamette Valley wine business can sign. 

If I need more information about this process, pledge, etc., with whom do I speak?

The DEBI Task Force is leading this project along with members of the WVWA staff. Email DEBI Task Force leaders Jessica Mozeico and Bill Sweat so we can direct your question appropriately.

Will our name be published if we sign?
At various stages throughout this process, your brand’s name may be published on the Willamette Valley Wineries Association’s website and will be shared with other signatory brands.

Is there a deadline to sign the pledge?
This pledge will always be available to sign. 

I would like to learn more about diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion. Where do I start?
You're in luck! Our DEBI Task Force has put together an ever-evolving toolkit of our favorite articles, podcasts, videos, films, and social media personalities devoted to this topic, all sorted by time commitment so you can select the materials that make sense for you and your team. Check it out.