Episode 14: Elaine Chukan Brown on Indigenous Representation in the Wine Industry

Today, I chat with Elaine Chukan Brown about Indigenous representation in the wine industry.  

Elaine is an Alaskan Native, from the Inupiaq-Unangan-Sugpiaq tribes.   She started fishing commercially when she was nine years old and worked in various industries before starting her wine career.  Elaine is a wine educator and writer.  She is the American wine specialist at JancisRobinson.com and has contributed to the 4th edition of the Oxford Companion to Wine and the 8th edition of the World Atlas of Wine.  She was voted IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year in 2020.

We discuss the history of Indigenous Americans and alcohol, misguided stereotypes, cultural appropriation, and what it means to be an Indigenous-owned winery.

Photo by Elaine, with her grandmother, an Alaskan native from the Inupiaq-Yupik tribes.

Instagram: @hawk_wakawaka