Many wine clubs will send you bottles from Napa or Sonoma. But Gilroy? Gilroy-made tastes of Pinot Grigio, Rose, Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon arrived at my doorstep in an attractive gray box, courtesy of Fly Wines.
“We admire Fortino not only for their Gilroy roots but also for their dedication to producing quality wines that represent the unique terroir of the region,” said Stephanie Franklin, founder and CEO of Fly Wines. “Spotlighting independent producers like Fortino aligns with our mission of promoting diversity and discovery in the world of wine.”
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As a Black woman in the wine industry, she’s an outlier, and she likes that she is helping boost diversity in the world of wine. While there are some high-profile Black women winemakers and sommeliers, there are very few on the distribution side; even Franklin herself doesn’t know of any others.
“I constantly get asked what wines I make, as people don’t understand there are so many aspects you can play in the wine industry,” she said.
Count Franklin among those who underwent a major life transition during the COVID-19 pandemic. The forty-something Franklin, who lives in Oakland, was working in technology. She earned a good salary, yes, but she felt little job satisfaction.
She had already started asking herself the usual questions triggered by midlife: “Is this it? Is this what my life has come to?” When she began envisioning what the next decades of her life might look like, she knew she wanted something different.
Then, in the fall of 2020, her mother died suddenly. “It changes you,” she said. “It instantly changed me.”
The questions about her future continued to swirl in her head.
Then, about a month later, she got together with a friend for a socially-distanced catchup. Her friend had a wine-tasting kit. While the packaging was appealing, the wine that came inside it was not.
“None of them were good,” Franklin recalled. “A lightbulb went off with this kit, and that became the driver to keep pushing me forward.”
Fly Wines, based in Oakland, with its warehouse in Napa, began with a wine-tasting kit and grew out of that moment.
Originally from Miami, Franklin said that she barely remembers her parents consuming alcohol. In her middle-class church-going family, “wine was not a thing at all.”
Only after she graduated from college can she recall enjoying a drink together with her parents; so notable was it that she remembers thinking, “We’re going to have a glass of wine together?”
When she was obtaining her master’s degree in international management with marketing at the University of Roehampton in London, her own interest in wine was piqued, and she went from ordering the safe bet, a Merlot, to trying more adventurous varietals and even blends.
Living in London allowed her to travel, she said, and guided by her new interest, she visited some of Europe’s best-known wine regions.
By the time the idea for Fly Wines had crystallized in her head, Franklin was confident in her knowledge about and palate for wine. But she knew very little about the wine business. That might stop some people in their tracks. She relied on friends, sure, but also on other contacts she had made in the wine world, for advice in getting started.
For example, before she could do anything, she needed a license from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
“I had no idea who the ABC even was,” she said. Luckily, though, she had a friend whose husband was a winemaker in Santa Cruz, and he was willing to guide her through the process.
“I was very vulnerable and told people I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “There was so much paperwork. Ultimately, I’m grateful because it allowed me to build relationships with people who were there to guide me along the way.”
The fact that people she asked for help responded in this way reinforced her notion that she was on the right path, “that this is simply what I need to do,” she said.
Franklin did all of this while still employed.
Fly Wines launched at the end of 2022. Franklin is its founder and CEO. It began as a wine-tasting box, not dissimilar from the original one that gave her the idea, but this time, with what she deemed superior wines.
While the wine-tasting box is still sold today (and features four 187 ml bottles) for $76, the company also has a wine club. Subscribers get two bottles a month for $84 and then they can buy more of that wine if they like.
While Franklin works together with the company’s San Francisco-based sommelier, Guiliano Manno, to select the wines, they focus on independent producers that aren’t so easy to find here. Many boutique wineries abroad don’t attempt to enter the U.S. market because the barrier to entry is prohibitively expensive for them. But with a U.S. partner, it becomes doable.
And even if the varietals seem familiar to the American palate, Franklin believes there’s something different about their offerings. “We source unique wines that you wouldn’t taste otherwise,” she said.
Fly has featured wines from Turkey, and they plan to have offerings from Morocco and East Africa later this year.
While at first they focused on shipping directly to consumers, now they’re making inroads in selling to restaurants and wine shops, too. And they’re increasing their shipping to different states around the country. It’s all led to a rising profile for FlyWines, which was recently mentioned in Bon Appetit.
“I enjoy helping independent wineries and having people taste our wines and seeing how much joy it brings them,” Franklin concluded. “I want to focus on things that bring people joy, and that’s why I’m in wine.”
