Jamila Conley is the founder and owner of WeRise Wines, a company on a mission to bring access and awareness to diversity in wine by showcasing BIPOC, women, and other minority wineries and winemakers. Black winemakers make up less than 10% of the wine industry, women less than 20%, Latinx 15%. WeRise is building awareness of fantastic wines from diverse and underrepresented winemakers. They seek to engage wine lovers within the Seattle metro area and provide access to communities that may be less familiar with wine so that they too can learn, discover, and enjoy.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is WeRise Wines?
WeRise Wines is a mission-based business focused on bringing better access and awareness to diversity in wine.
And why diversity in wine, specifically?
I am a longtime connoisseur of wine, I’ve always loved wine. I have a strong passion for D and I (diversity and inclusion). I was at a dinner a few years ago that was focused on Black women and wine. I was shocked because there were about eight or nine winemakers there and I had only heard of two of them. Most of the wine was just fantastic, and it started me thinking and questioning, well, who else is out there that I don’t know about? And why don’t I know about them? I learned a bit about the operations of the wine industry and how hard it can be for smaller wineries to get into distribution. I wanted to bring the wine to where the people are.
Where are you located?
We are in downtown Seattle on 2nd and Stewart right across from the famous Moore Theater about a block off of Pike Place Market. It was really important to me to be intentional on where we were located so that we could both attract a broad set of eyes on the wine but also be able to attract communities of color and other underrepresented communities as well as the corporate community into our space.
Say a little bit about the wines that you are bringing to our attention.
One, I wanted to take care of home first, so I have all of the Black winemakers and wineries here in Washington State, as well as most of the queer wineries and winemakers. I am working on and continuing to grow the women winemakers, but we have a pretty hefty list.
I also have wines out of Oregon, wines out of California, and even as far as South Africa, France, and Italy. We source far and wide, but we definitely try to keep the focus domestic to highlight the people here in the United States who don’t get enough coverage.
A wine business could operate online, so what was important to you about having a brick-and-mortar space?
I really wanted to be part of the revitalization of downtown, and I wanted to do at least my small part of giving a place for community, for people to gather as we’re coming out of the pandemic. We’re all trying to figure out, okay, what’s still open? Where can I go? What’s new? So it was very important for me to be able to give some space to build community alongside having an online business.
Tell us a little bit about the space – including your private event space.
First and foremost you’ll see that we have a very welcoming and inviting space. We wanted to make sure that we could meet people where they were. So whether you are dropping in by yourself for a glass of wine or coming in with friends, everyone’s welcome. If you want to have a bigger party, we have a private event room and we work with a lot of companies that are hosting events here. It’s amazing to be able to introduce such a broad network of people to wines that they may not have experienced alongside our food and our catering program for our chef. And just bringing that experience both to the business community and to the broader consumer community.
You’ve been open for two months, what’s been the reception of customers so far?
Oh my gosh, the community has loved us. It’s been so welcoming and people are just so excited that we’re here. It’s been amazing. Opening in late December and having our first full month in January, that I would say that we’re seeing great traffic, especially during what can be a very slow time.
What were you doing before you were a wine connoisseur and entrepreneur?
Okay, don’t laugh at me, but I came out of the technology sector. I worked in operations, I did mergers and acquisitions, HR, talent acquisition, so I have a very broad and strong strategic operations background. When I decided to do this and to take my passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and apply it to something that I love, which is wine, I brought all of my corporate skills with me to build this. So, I know a lot of people are like, “Wait, tech to wine?” But it all makes sense. The devil’s in the details.
What surprised you about being an entrepreneur trying to run a brick-and-mortar compared to the tech industry?
It’s a lot, being all of the departments at once. So, you know, it’s like you never really shut off and you’re always constantly thinking about what did I forget? What’s that next thing that I need to do? You have to have a passion for your work, it is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure.
What are some of the wines that you are particularly excited about that somebody might see on the menu?
One is Saanj Winery. They just launched their winery in June of 2024. They’re brand new. It’s a Black and Indian couple who came out of tech as well. Their wines are fantastic. So, if you are a Rose, Chardonnay, or Riesling fan, definitely try theirs.
I also have a Black winemaker out of South Africa. He makes an amazing Sauv Blanc. Lots of people will come in and want a white wine and ask for a recommendation, and I steer them towards that Sauv Blanc. People come in and ask for a recommendation and I always talk to them about his. And they’re always like, “Oh my gosh, this is incredible. Can I buy the bottle?”
And then, the third one would probably be LaShellé. It’s a Black woman out of Woodinville. And she just makes some of the most approachable wines out there. Funny enough, she started winemaking by first just experimenting and having fun making fruit wine, primarily from pears. And then, as she got that down, she was like, “I really like this. I’m going to try making regular wine out of grapes.” She went back to school and learned about winemaking. And her wines are so great. She makes her wines so that once they are ready you can open them and pour. They don’t need to stay on the shelf long. And they’re very approachable, very smooth.
Intentionalist is all about spending like it matters, encouraging people to spend their dollars at diverse small businesses rather than paying for convenience and getting things shipped to the comfort of home. Could you talk a little bit about why that’s important?
I find that is so important for several reasons and not for what you might think initially because number one, just as we think about the climate crisis, the more that we can support small businesses and show up for those businesses without having to put more cars on the road, I think is huge.
Two, being able to help people bring their passion to life where they want to help you and they’re coming from a place of genuine authenticity and also trying to drive impact. Why wouldn’t you want to support a small business?
And third, the economic climate – it is not great for small businesses right now. We’re not trying to build shareholder wealth. We’re just trying to pay our bills. So, that’s something to think about, you know, before you’re going to spend with a big box company or some of these other companies out there, that when you see those layoffs and different things happening, that’s because they’re trying to, you know, increase their shareholder wealth. But when you see small businesses go out of business, it’s truly because they ran out of money or things like the expiring tip credit that happened at the end of last year, that their expenses became more than their revenue. So, helping right some of those things that we can easily do by just making some small tweaks can go a long way for everyone.
Tell us about some of the things that you have going on here at the shop and wine club!
Well, there’s a few things going on. One, we’re really working on our programming right now and trying to do weekly events as well as pop-up events. So on our website, under bar events, you’re going to find at least one event a week.
We do a Wine Down Wednesday and the theme of the Wine Down Wednesday changes each week. We had Silent Book Club this last week. I think we have Game Night coming next week. We have Drag Bingo coming on March 6th, so don’t miss that. We participate in the Belltown Art Walk. So if you’re looking for things to do, check out our events page.
We also do pop-ups with a lot of our winery partners. There are going to be a few pop-ups in recognition of Women’s History Month, so be on the lookout for those that are coming. And then we’re introducing a new event called Foreign Explorer and it’s to introduce people to our wine club. Each month we have three different clubs and each month we curate special wines, both aligned to the Heritage Month and to give you a chance to try a lot of different labels and actually explore the diversity of wine. And so the Foreign Explorer events will be a ticketed event that will give you the chance to taste through some of the selections for that month’s club. There will be a DJ. There will be food. We really hope that people come out and experience that. We expect it to be a lot of fun and we always have wines for our club members that aren’t necessarily in shop or in bars, so there’s always a little surprise in there as well.
Tell us about the name WeRise?
The name is actually a play on the famous poem by the late, great Maya Angelou, Still I Rise. As we were thinking through the name for the business, we were thinking maybe we should have something with “Rise” in it since you’re helping people discover brands they don’t know about. And so we came up with WeRise because WeRise is really, while it’s focused on the wine, it’s so much more than wine. It’s about the community. How do we help the community come together and rise up? How do we help the people that we’re partnered with? And it’s just like, how do we all rise together is really what WeRise is all about. And so we’re intentional in the people we hire, the food that we bring to the table.
Everything is wrapped in inclusion and bringing a differentiated, accessible experience to all. So that’s really where the name came from and what WeRise is all about. And you’ll see over the bar the Still I Rise sign because we always want to remind ourselves that no matter where we are, we’re always rising and we’re all rising together.
Any final thoughts?
We’d love to invite you in. Come and experience what we’ve put together and enjoy a glass of wine with us. And also, support other small businesses out there. We partner with other small businesses. So we have beer on tap from Métier. We have a cider we carry from one of our Korean winemakers out of Oregon. It’s called Cho Wines and it’s really nice. And then another person doing something similar, if you haven’t been to Lucy’s Bottle Shop over in Magnolia, check out Lucy’s Bottle Shop. It’s a similar concept that has tastings in wine and if you haven’t been to Boon Boona Coffee, check them out. They’re Black owned and have great coffee. Also Pizza by Ruffin, a great Black pizza maker. So there’s just great stuff out there. So please explore and enjoy.
Pro tip: WeRise Wines is selling women-owned wine at a discount to celebrate Women’s History Month!
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