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How an Ex-N.B.A. Player Is Diversifying Wine One Sip at a Time

As corporate diversity efforts fade out, Channing Frye and his Chosen Family Wines have taken an unpretentious grass roots approach, bringing wine to communities of color.

Channing Frye has committed his label, Chosen Family Wines, to introduce wine to communities neglected by the wine industry. Credit... Celeste Noche for The New York Times

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By Eric Asimov

Reporting from Wilsonville and McMinnville, Ore.

• April 22, 2024

When Channing Frye retired in 2019 after 15 years as a solid power forward in the N.B.A., he was at loose ends. With no long-term plans, he said, he began to feel depressed.

“My wife said, ‘What do you love?’ I said, ‘I love people and I love wine.’ I could become a party planner or I could go into wine.”

Mr. Frye chose wine. He established a label, Chosen Family Wines , based in Oregon, where he had settled with his wife, Lauren, after playing for the Portland Trail Blazers early in his career. His partners include Kevin Love, his former teammate with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who is still playing, now with the Miami Heat.

The N.B.A. has had in recent years an intense connection to wine . Mr. Frye is one of many current and former players who’ve gone into the wine business, including Dwyane Wade , Tony Parker , Carmelo Anthony , CJ McCollum , Josh Hart and others. LeBron James and Gregg Popovich , the coach of the San Antonio Spurs, are serious connoisseurs who’ve turned many in the league on to wine.

But what sets Chosen Family Wine apart is its commitment — its mission, really — to bringing wine to communities that have long been neglected by the wine industry. While some companies have made efforts to bring people of color into already existing corporate structures, Chosen Family set about meeting people on their own terms to introduce them to wine in comfortable and familiar contexts.

“We want to move with intention, to show people how approachable wine can be,” said Tiquette Bramlett, vice president of Chosen Family. “When they’re talking about wine, I want them to speak on what they know. We can’t use all the Eurocentric language that’s standard in the textbooks.”

In the racial reckoning that took place after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, many in the wine industry promoted major efforts to diversify both the industry itself and its customer base. With some exceptions, many of those efforts turned out to be short-lived.

“I’ll be honest, D.E.I. is dead,” said Ikimi Dubose-Woodson, the executive director of the Roots Fund , a nonprofit that helps people of color gain access to the wine industry. “It was a fashion trend, almost. A lot of corporations that made commitments have pulled them back. They say they can’t afford it.”

Far more successful are the Black wine professionals, who have put wine in the context of familiar and cherished elements of Black culture. People and organizations like Jermaine Stone , who has integrated wine and hip-hop; Oenoverse , which is dedicated to building a more inclusive wine industry in Virginia; and Chosen Family are pushing forward with community-based, grass roots approaches.

But making people feel welcome after a lifetime of feeling excluded requires methods other than the standard practice of memorizing grapes, places and producers and plunging into describing aromas and flavors.

“You have to be patient, really patient,” Mr. Frye said during a visit to the Chosen Family tasting room in Wilsonville, Ore. “You can’t talk down to people. You have to meet them where they are. You have to meld two different worlds.”

Mr. Frye, who is unimposing despite his 7-foot stature, speaks plainly, free of the pedantic wine jargon so easily associated with snobbery and pretension. He finds ways to relate wine to the cultures of his audience rather than to the pastoral images derived from European countrysides.

“If you love wine, I want to relate to you,” he said. “Chardonnay goes with salmon, but how many people eat salmon in Mississippi? Chardonnay goes with catfish, too. You make wine not scary. Have a party, good music and a DJ. Serve wine. People say, ‘I didn’t know wine could taste like that.’”

Ms. Dubose-Woodson says the wine industry ought to have a stake in opening its markets to people of color. She says it’s a matter of demographics, particularly as the baby boomers, who have carried the industry economically for so long, age out of their prime buying years .

“These are the communities who are going to replace the old white people,” she said. “If you’re not going out to these communities, you’re losing that dollar.”

It’s also in the interests of people of color to gain at least a working knowledge of wine, she said, just as some prestigious business schools require their students to learn about wine, so they can function in high-end social environments.

“They need to be able to network, it’s a business necessity,” she said. “Black and brown leaders in their own communities, we deserve this knowledge so we can thrive in these environments.”

The process of building new markets requires time and investment, beginning with comfortable opportunities for gathering, with wine available in what Ms. Bramlett calls safe spaces.

“Being able to come in and be as you are is a powerful feeling,” she said. “You can make wine exactly what you want it to be.”

Mr. Frye says Chosen Family has offered opportunities pitched to Black audiences, like joining with “Wining While Black,” a group that organizes Black-oriented networking opportunities.

“Then we have a follow-up tasting seminar,” he said. “We build positive associations with wine. Don’t tell people they are wrong.

“It’s an untapped market. Once they trust us, they are empowered to go out and explore. But you have to invest. It’s not an immediate return.”

It helps that, unlike many celebrity wines, Chosen Family’s wines are really good. Its selection, all from purchased grapes, centers on the Willamette Valley and ranges from simple but delicious chardonnays and pinot noirs for around $25 to $30 to reserve set of chardonnays and pinot noirs that are subtle and lively but more complex and age-worthy than what Mr. Frye calls the “daily drinkers.”

Chosen Family also offers a series of what Mr. Frye calls collaboration wines, in which Chosen Family partners with another producer to make single-vineyard wines from different parts of the Willamette Valley, like a beautiful, saline chardonnay, made with Lingua Franca in the Eola-Amity Hills. Its offerings also stray beyond Oregon, including an intense Sonoma Coast pinot noir and a fresh, complex Howell Mountain cabernet sauvignon in partnership with Salty Goats .

“We want to constantly be looking for new things and putting new winemakers on the map,” Mr. Frye said. “We’re reaching for a demographic, why only give them one kind of wine? I don’t drink like that. Why not share these regions and these winemakers?”

Mr. Frye was introduced to wine when his wife took him to visit Domaine Drouhin when he first came to the Trailblazers in the 2007-08 season, and he’s been learning ever since, both from teammates during his playing days and on his own.

“I do more listening than talking,” he said. “Wine has so many layers, so many different facets. It’s like you’re going through the closet to Narnia.”

Mr. Frye has faced his own obstacles gaining acceptance.

“People think it’s a money grab or a vanity project,” he said. “I’m always asked, ‘Why are you so Black-centric?’ We’re not. But I’m new at this. You know who wants to work with us? Black and Hispanic people.”

However challenging, he’s finding fulfillment in the work.

“I love that we are breaking down barriers one sip at a time,” he said. “Whether you are white or Black, if you come here you should feel different when you leave.”

Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .

Eric Asimov , the chief wine critic of The Times since 2004, has been writing about wine, food and restaurants for more than 30 years. More about Eric Asimov

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Kurdish separatists and water issues loom large in long-awaited visit of Turkey's Erdogan to Iraq

BAGHDAD — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdog an arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first official visit in more than a decade as Ankara seeks greater cooperation from Baghdad in its fight against a Kurdish militant group that has a foothold in Iraq.

Other issues also loom large between the two countries, including water supply and exports of oil and gas from northern Iraq to Turkey, halted for more than a year.

Erdogan, whose last visit to Baghdad was in 2011, when he was prime minister, met with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as they inked agreements on water management, security, energy and economic cooperation.

“I believe that my visit and the agreements just signed will constitute a new turning point in Turkey-Iraq relations,” Erdogan said in a joint news conference with al-Sudani.

Al-Sudani said they discussed “bilateral security coordination, which will meet the needs of both parties and confront the challenges posed by the presence of armed elements that may cooperate with terrorism and violate the security of the two countries.”

Erdogan’s visit “comes at a sensitive and dangerous time,” al-Sudani added, citing Israel's war against the Hamas militant group in Gaza — a war that has had ripple effects across the region.

Erdogan said the leaders had “consulted on the joint steps we can take against the PKK terrorist organization and its extensions, which target Turkey from Iraqi territory,” referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a Kurdish separatist movement banned in Turkey.

The PKK has maintained bases in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Erdogan had previously announced a major operation against the PKK during the summer, with the aim of “permanently” eradicating the threat it poses. He did not specify what actions Turkish forces would take in Iraq but Turkish forces have in the past carried out numerous ground offensives against PKK in northern Iraq and Turkish jets frequently target suspected PKK sites.

Ankara now aims to create a 30-40 kilometer (19-25 mile) deep security corridor along the joint border with Iraq, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler told journalists last month.

The insurgency — the PKK is fighting for an autonomous Kurdish state in southeast Turkey — has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s and Turkey and its Western allies have labelled PKK a terrorist organization.

Baghdad has long complained that Turkish actions in Iraq against the PKK violate its sovereignty, but appears to be acquiescing with Ankara’s operations.

In March, after a meeting between the Iraqi and Turkish foreign ministers, Baghdad announced that the Iraqi National Security Council had issued a ban on the PKK, although it stopped short of designating it as a terrorist organization. Erdogan on Monday praised the ban.

Al-Sudani told journalists during a visit to Washington last week that Iraq and Turkey have “true interests with one another and common projects.” He noted that the PKK has long had a presence in northern Iraq, “but we are not allowing any armed group to be on Iraqi territory and using it as a launchpad for attacks.”

Ankara has argued that PKK’s presence in Iraq threatens the planned construction of a major trade route, the Iraq Development Road, that would connect the port in Basra , southern Iraq, to Turkey and Europe through a network of rail lines and highways.

Baghdad may take a similar approach to the PKK as it has taken to Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in northern Iraq.

The presence of Iranian dissidents had become a point of tension with Tehran, which periodically launches airstrikes on their bases in Iraq. Last summer, Iran and Iraq reached an agreement to disarm the groups and relocate their members from military bases to displacement camps.

Energy issues and water rights are also key in Iraq-Turkey ties.

An oil pipeline running from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region to Turkey has been shut down since March 2023, after an arbitration court ruling ordered Ankara to pay Iraq $1.5 billion for oil exports that bypassed Iraq’s central government in Baghdad. The sharing of oil and gas revenues has long been a contentious issue between Baghdad and Kurdish authorities in Irbil.

In recent years, Iraqi officials have complained that dams built by Turkey are reducing Iraq’s water supply .

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which provide most of Iraq’s fresh water, originate in Turkey. Experts fear that climate change is likely to exacerbate existing water shortages in Iraq, with potentially devastating consequences.

Mustafa Hassan, a Baghdad resident, said he hopes that Erdogan’s visit “will help to solve problems related to water, because Iraq is suffering from a water scarcity crisis, and this affects agriculture.”

Erdogan said Ankara was aware of the water problems Iraq faces and that the two countries have set up “a joint permanent committee which is going to help through cooperation ... taking our shared interests into consideration.”

Fraser reported from Istanbul. Associated Press writers Andrew Wilks in Istanbul, Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Ali Jabar in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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Blue-Chip Running Back Locks In Official Visit With FSU Football

The Seminoles will host one of their top targets in the 2025 class later this summer.

• Author: Dustin Lewis

In this story:

The end of April is closing in and Florida State still only holds four verbal commitments in #Tribe24. The Seminoles haven't added a pledge since January 16 but things are primed to begin to shift on the recruiting trail in the near future.

By now, everyone knows that FSU does most of its work in the summer and that appears to be no different this time around. Last year, the Seminoles netted 10+ commitments from June to August, leading to the belief that a similar run could be on the horizon.

One of Florida State's top targets regardless of position in the 2025 class is four-star running back Byron Louis. The interest is mutual as Louis has already visited campus three times and has another trip planned in the near future.

Following his visit to FSU for the Garnet & Gold Spring Showcase, Louis revealed on social media that he's locked in an official visit with the Seminoles from June 21-23. That's setting up to be the big recruiting weekend this summer with a number of key targets and commitments scheduled to be in town.

The Seminoles are one of the schools standing out to Louis for a variety of reasons.

“What stands out to me about Florida State is, yes you expect them to come to you, but honestly, you have to want to be here. You have to want to be coached by these coaches, you have to want to learn, you have to want to be a team player, you have to want to be the best you,” Louis said to NoleGameday previously. “You know, coach Norvell always says, if you’re not willing to be the best you, if you’re not willing to be the best teammate, the best human, the best son if you’re not willing to be the best then don’t come here. I feel as if that’s very important because not everybody can come here, not everybody is invited here, not everybody is able to wear that garnet and gold.”

The Florida native is coming off a junior season at American Heritage where he rushed 160 times for 1,224 yards with 18 touchdowns to guide his team to a playoff semifinal appearance.

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound running back is regarded as the No. 201 prospect, the No. 14 RB, and the No. 28 recruit in the state of Florida in the 2025 class according to 247Sports.

READ MORE: FSU Football To Be Without Two Scholarship Quarterbacks For Spring Showcase

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Kevin Bacon visits 'Footloose' school before it's torn down — and in time for prom

Ciara Hulet

The Utah high school where Footloose was filmed invited Kevin Bacon to visit for their prom on the 40th anniversary of the film's release.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

This year is the 40th anniversary of the hit film "Footloose." You may remember Kevin Bacon as a high school student who gets a conservative town to loosen up and ditch its ban on dancing. The school in Utah where it was filmed is about to be torn down, and students there have been working hard to get Bacon to come and visit. And this weekend, he did, just in time for their prom. Ciara Hulet with member station KUER in Salt Lake City was there.

CIARA HULET, BYLINE: Scenes from the hit '80s film took place right here. Principal Jesse Sorenson says his son actually discovered Ren McCormack's locker during a summer cleaning job.

JESSE SORENSON: And there was a little sticker in there that was all faded that said, congratulations, you have Kevin Bacon's locker from the film "Footloose," 1984.

HULET: What? (Laughter).

SORENSON: Yeah. And this is the locker.

HULET: What?

(SOUNDBITE OF KEYS JANGLING)

HULET: It's filled with movie pictures and quotes and a pair of cowboy boots.

SORENSON: And then there's a Bible here with the scripture about the time to weep, the time to laugh, the time to mourn and the time to dance.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOCKER CLOSING)

HULET: Payson High students and faculty have been working for a couple of years to bring Bacon back for one last dance. Student Body President Rubie Raff.

RUBIE RAFF: This whole school year, all of our events have been aimed towards "Footloose." We did a "Footloose" - a school musical, a "Footloose" movie stadium night, Mr. Bacon contest.

HULET: The school finally convinced him to come.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Kevin Bacon.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HULET: Kevin Bacon does a little jig as he walks on to the Payson High School football field. He says, at first, he thought the idea of coming back was crazy.

KEVIN BACON: But you were all just tireless, unrelenting (laughter).

HULET: He says Payson has shown some of the ideas behind "Footloose," like standing up to authority, freedom of expression and having compassion for other people.

BACON: I also think that it's amazing the power that this movie has had to just kind of bring people together.

HULET: Bacon agreed to come after the school promised to help out his charitable foundation, Sixdegrees.org. It gives away resource kits for people in need. And on the day of his visit, students and people in Payson lined up across the school's football field, putting together 5,000 kits.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Mr. Bacon, are you counting?

BACON: I'm counting.

HULET: They're bagging things like hygiene items, food, a journal and vouchers for free therapy through BetterHelp. Utah nonprofit Encircle is one that will be giving out the kits. CEO Jordan Sgro says a lot of the LGBTQ youth they serve experience homelessness and food insecurity.

JORDAN SGRO: Encircle's getting over a thousand kits to distribute, which is just incredibly powerful.

HULET: She also says the attention from someone like Kevin Bacon is a reminder to these youth that they're loved and important.

SGRO: That just does a lot internally for an LGBTQ youth that's really struggling with their identity or with their journey.

HULET: Student Council Adviser Jenny Staheli says the project to bring back Bacon has also done a lot for Payson. It brought them together, especially in a time when unity feels hard to find.

Do you think this is something that was particularly needed this year?

JENNY STAHELI: I really do. And I think it's really because this is such a feel-good idea that we can all get behind and we can all agree that good things need to happen in the world, and unexpected kindnesses are worth it.

HULET: Mayor Bill Wright hopes that even after Kevin Bacon's visit, the community will continue to work together.

BILL WRIGHT: You have a dream, make that dream come to fruition. And you only do that by working together.

HULET: But Bacon didn't leave without busting one last move.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Here we go.

(SOUNDBITE OF KENNY LOGGINS SONG, "FOOTLOOSE")

HULET: For NPR News in Payson, Utah, I'm Ciara Hulet.

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