Like a Natural Woman

Text: R.H. Drexel

Photograhy: Christoffer Lomfors

The wine business is presently so obsessed about whether Gen Z and Millennials are drinking wine that they’ve forgotten to ask if any of these young people are actually making wine. Millennials are between 28 to 43-years old, while members of Gen Z are between 12- and 27-years old. Winemaker Justin Michelle Ward Trabue, 29-years old, straddles both demographics. 

"I’ve gotten many a job interview because people thought I was a man. And, then a Black woman shows up, and they’re like, Whoa!" Trabue, who identifies as a Queer woman, was conceived by wine-loving parents in Paso Robles, during one of their wine-tasting excursions in the early 90s. "In 1994, my parents took a road trip through California, stopping mostly in wine-growing regions like Napa, Sonoma, and Paso Robles. They visited Justin Vineyards & Winery on that trip. I was born nine months later."

I’ve met up with Trabue in Napa, where she lives full-time. She has asked me to meet her at a casual eatery not far from her apartment. When I arrive, I’m the only one there. The staff barely notices me when I walk in, a benefit of old age. My gray hair and wonky gait have rendered me nearly invisible, and I’m here for it. I like the breathing room. When Trabue enters, though, all heads turn towards her, mine included. She’s accompanied by a palpable, electric energy. The room itself seems to awaken from its slumber. 

"My motto is wines of joy, no fuss. That encapsulates me as a person," she says. Trabue is the founder of Ward Four Wines. Though she lives in Napa, she makes her wines elsewhere. "Custom crush fees are astronomical in Napa." She landed a small space at a custom crush facility on the outskirts of Sonoma called Obsidian Wine Company and has been making wine there since the founding of Ward Four Wines in 2021. 

Trabue grew up with wine on the table, but didn’t become interested in it until 2013, the year she graduated high school. When her parents asked her what she wanted to do for school, she told them she might be interested in wine. "They ended up having a sommelier come to our house. He was a Black man. I was like, cool, there’s someone who looks like me in the world of wine. I could do this! He told me, ‘Wine can take you anywhere. You can do so many things with it.’"

Fresh out of high school, she moved across the country to attend Cal Poly, in San Luis Obispo, along California’s Central Coast. "During the first three months of school, I had to choose between Wine Business, Enology or Viticulture. I didn’t want to do Organic Chemistry. And I didn’t want to be in the dirt. At that point, I was an 18-year-old woman coming from an urban jungle." But as she progressed in her studies, she discovered, "dirt is really cool. I really like this." She transitioned from the wine business to winemaking.

Her memories of her time at Cal Poly are mixed. “When I moved from D.C. to Cal Poly, I went from the Chocolate City to one of the whitest campuses in California. Less than 10% of the students at Cal Poly are black. "It’s more like 1%,” she tells me. In her program, she was the sole Black person in her year. "It was pretty isolating, but I found my community in other ways." During her junior year, she enrolled in a month-long program in Adelaide, Australia. "It was incredible because that was my first time going abroad for wine. That’s what really got me interested in harvest." Then, in 2019, having already graduated, she worked a harvest in New Zealand. That was the first time she worked alongside another Black person in the wine industry. "It took that long! He was South African. I was American. We both discussed how isolating and lonely it was." They developed a friendship. "His name is Marlin. He’s incredible. He still lives in New Zealand."

When she returned from New Zealand, she set about applying for grants and scholarships.  "Mine is a fully grant-funded winery." She attended Radical Exchange, a scholarship conference in New Orleans. "I needed to be in a community with people who looked like me. At this conference, almost everyone was Black or Brown." With funding from The Roots Fund, the Lift Collective, Dream Big Darling and other organizations, Trabue was able to create Ward Four Wines with a modest twenty-five thousand dollars. 

The launch of her nascent wine brand was delayed due to Covid, which, once again, left Trabue feeling isolated.  Not only was the pandemic isolating for countless others, but for people of color, the George Floyd murder added a layer of horror and fear to an already terrifying climate. "These terrible murders of Black people were happening. I mean, there have been consistent murders of Black people throughout the ages, but these were very intentional. Very terrible murders were happening. George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor. And nothing was being talked about within the wine industry. The wine and hospitality industry has literally been built on black and brown bodies, and you all weren’t saying anything."

Fraught, Trabue, and a friend, Simonnne Mitchelson, penned an open letter to the wine industry via their social media platforms. The letter generated plenty of attention and eventually led to Cal Poly establishing a BIPOC scholarship for students studying Agriculture. Trabue’s consistently sunny disposition takes a sudden detour towards a more reflective, ruminative state, and for a moment, our sunny breakfast becomes quiet. Still. She pauses, then adds, "Napa is still white-dominant, but there’s an incredible Hispanic community here. And there’s access and proximity to Oakland, San Francisco, Vallejo, and San Jose. Just more diversity in general." Her voice tapers off, but moments later, she is smiling again, undeterred. Looking ahead. She cites Nancy Ulloa of Ulloa Cellars in Paso Robles as someone who inspires her. "The way she’s growing and lifting others in the Latina and Latino community is incredible. This generation: we build each other up."

I cite a few recent articles that have appeared in the wine trade lamenting that her generation doesn’t buy wine. "We are buying. We’re just very intentional in what we’re buying. We’re not buying these large, corporate brands. We are more so intentionally looking for smaller producers. The larger ones already have a large customer base. We want to give our money to smaller companies. And, personally, I don’t just pair wine with food. I pair it with movies, television shows, and songs. And not because it will make me different, but because I love it. It’s another way for people who love the same things to connect with one another." In her latest letter to her customers, she pairs her 2023 Muscat Blanc with the movie JawBreaker (1999); the TV shows, My Hero Academia & HeartStopper; the song, Gimme Gimme Gimme, by Abba and a specific memory of hers. "Late nights and early mornings with my brother; downstairs playing Mario Galaxy, cellphone Chess, and Settlers of Catan. Our latest obsession is UNDERTALE on Nintendo switch, a game of monsters and humans searching through ruins."

For Trabue, marketing Ward Four Wines is a deeply personal undertaking. "I have wines for every drinker. My dad likes big, bold, intense reds, but I make them so I would like to drink them. My mom likes floral, fruity whites, and Italian Reds. My little brother likes playful and light wines. Accordingly, she makes a Petite Sirah to satisfy her dad’s palate, a Viognier and Barbera, to please her mom, and a bright, dry Muscat Blanc, in honor of her younger brother, who is ‘playful and light‘ like my Muscat." The next wine in Trabue’s line up? "A wine that I’ll make in memory of my grandmother. I’m not sure what it will be yet." She sources fruit from Mendocino, Paso Robles, Contra Coast, Sonoma, and Napa. "I am reaching out to customers who enjoy the same things I do. I’m very much a theatre kid. I love the Arts. I love museums. I love films. Gaming. I’m reaching out to clubs and organizations that enjoy those things."

Last October, she poured her wines at a Dungeons and Dragons-themed haunted house. She pours at Board Game clubs, and hands out fun free stickers at consumer tastings, about which she’s discerning.  She chooses events that don’t require vendor fees, and asks herself, "Is everyone going to be hammered? Will I be able to get mailing list sign ups? Are these people who I want to hang out with? That’s the biggest consideration!"

She’s especially fond of events like the Big West Wine Fest in Guernville, California. It features Natural Wines and is Queer owned. Trabue pulls out her phone and shows me photos of the event. People dressed as fairies and forest nymphs and just regular folks, too, heading into a thick forest, foregrounded by a flowering meadow.  "It was incredible," she says. "So fun! We poured under the Redwoods. After any event, I crash. I don’t have a voice and I’ll sleep for two days. I put my all into those events. I want to be intentional, and I want to really listen, really pay attention to each person who comes to my table. I reset in the cellar or at home, enjoying someone else’s wine." In addition to sustaining her wine brand, from cellar work to sales---she does it all---Trabue also works full-time at Scribe Winery in Sonoma. "It provides me with the money to be able to do what I want to do. Ward Four is not making a profit yet."

At home, Trabue also resets by caring for her two pet rats. "I’m a proud rat mom to Dolcetto and Pinot Gris. I love them so much, but they have short lives. They only live three to five years. Each time I lose a rat, it’s heartbreaking." And she enjoys winetasting on her days off. "I’m still willing to pay around $100.00 for a great tasting experience. That’s a lot, but if it’s a great experience, I’ll pay it. But a lot of places in Napa are $200.00 to $500.00, just to taste and for everyday consumers that’s just not fair."

 The tables have turned a bit for Trabue and her parents. "It’s cool because they’re the ones that got me into wine, but now I get to share wines with them they’ve never heard of. They will often buy better-known wines they’ve read about in wine magazines, so I enjoy introducing them to small, obscure producers making interesting wines from lesser-known grape varieties." Trabue and her mother recently watched Godfather II together, their favorite movie, with a bottle of Ward Four Barbera.

Before we say our goodbyes, I agree to caravan with Trabue to her apartment nearby, where she’s forgotten a bottle of her Muscat to share with me. On our way out, I comment about a movie theater across the parking lot that I’ve heard has a good line-up of wines by the glass. "That’s what I do when I’m having a bad day," she interjects. "I go to that movie theater. I get to escape into a movie and afterwards, it’s like, everything’s going to be okay."