First came the tweet, from a New York University economics professor on behalf of the American Association of Wine Economists: “In terms of $$, the U.S. wine industry overwhelmingly supports Trump.”
Then came Domaine Serene’s Instagram post pledging to fight racism and “systemic inequality."
Amid national protests in support of the Black Lives Matter social justice movement, the Willamette Valley winery’s statement was met with harsh skepticism.
Economist Karl Storchmann’s June 4 Twitter post, which has since been deleted, referred to research from the AAWE showing that members of the American wine industry have donated more money to President Donald Trump’s campaigns than to other major presidential candidates.
At No. 4 on the association’s list of top individual Trump donors was Grace Evenstad, co-owner of Domaine Serene Winery in Dayton. In 2016, she and her husband, Ken Evenstad, donated $50,000 each to the Great America PAC, an organization calling itself "the premiere Pro-Trump Super PAC."
Ken Evenstad wasn’t on the AAWE list because in 2016 he listed Upsher-Smith Laboratories as his employer, and association researchers missed him when culling the Federal Election Commission database for winery-related individuals.
Also in 2016, the Evenstads donated $125,000 to the Republican National Committee and $5,400 directly to candidate Trump.
The association’s analysis drew criticism on several fronts. For example, the data included donations to Trump dating back to the 2016 campaign, but for other candidates, it included only donations in the current campaign. Storchmann has since corrected the database to include only contributions made as of June 3 to presidential candidates in the 2020 campaign.
Four days after the tweet, Domaine Serene’s Instagram account posted a social justice mission statement that read, in part, “We are actively developing a comprehensive plan to do our part to be anti-racist through education and civil discourse, and commit ourselves to invest in organizations that are advancing systemic change and opportunities for BIPOC communities.” BIPOC is an acronym for Black, Indigenous, People Of Color.
Dozens of people responded negatively, including Dana Frank, owner of Bar Norman in Portland, who wrote, "Your financial support of Trump says otherwise, and this post is performative garbage meant to make yourselves feel better. Our industry has been outwardly exclusive of BIPOC community members, and we cannot possibly hope to move forward or make changes if we aren't willing to see how we got here. Supporting a racist, anti-Semitic president is a start. How can you post something like this after being financial supporters of Trump?"
Grace Evenstad said in a statement: "My company, and the many businesses, large and small in our industry, are directly affected by a wide array of public policies, and I feel a strong obligation to take part in the process that shapes them. Indeed that's a bedrock right, even a duty, that all Americans share, and one that is fundamental to our democracy, even if we often differ on the best solutions. I have always tried to support candidates that advance policies that will best enable our business and our employees to flourish. But the various contributions I have made to political campaigns have always been done on my own initiative, and with my own resources, not the company's."
Rachel Kendall Adams is the founder and executive director of the Assemblage Symposium, an organization dedicated to the advancement of women and diverse communities in the wine industry. Adams questions the wisdom of supporting candidates who are "on the wrong side of history" when it comes to issues impacting the wine industry.
"Racism, immigration, climate change and tariffs are political issues with a direct line to what we do every day. We can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend our tasting rooms, wineries, marketing efforts and vineyards are apolitical spaces," Adams said.
Adams said she hopes Domaine Serene will follow through on its pledge to take concrete steps to promote social justice. "I hope the Evenstads and the rest of us in the Oregon wine community will put our hard-earned dollars toward being on the right side of history," Adams said.
Thursday, Linfield College in McMinnville said that Domaine Serene will be making a major donation to the college’s Evenstad Center for Wine Education for a new scholarship program to promote diversity.
"The Evenstads are endowing a scholarship at $500,000 that will support underrepresented minorities interested in wine studies and the wine industry. We've been working on this for many months," Miles Davis, president of Linfield College, said in a telephone interview.
“There is not a lot of diversity among winemakers in Oregon. Often one of the big barriers to study at an institution like Linfield in a wine studies program like ours is the ability to pay for tuition and room and board. This scholarship will help break down those barriers,” Davis said.
-- Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine.