Entrepreneur pours her all into wine and spirits

EBONY WINE AND SPIRITS

Camillya Masunda of Charlotte is owner of Ebony Wine & Spirits.

A Charlottean is showcasing her Congolese roots through an unconventional way.

Camillya Masunda is the owner of Ebony Wine & Spirits (ebonywineandspirits.com), which markets itself as the only minority-owned company of its kind in North Carolina.

“Representation is so important within the wine industry because seeing is believing. A vision or a dream can not be established or realized if something doesn’t trigger a memory or thought that may have been seen,” Masunda said on her website.

In 2023, Masunda launched Spirit Diaspora Vodka, a peach-flavored beverage sold at ABC stores.

“It's actually based on the celebration of minorities and their history of celebrating home, so is the tribute to putting culture on the shelves and will have that conversation about what is the diaspora?” Masunda said.
Masunda said she decided to add vodka production after researching distillation, which piqued her interest.

“I did the necessary research to be able to build relationships with distillers and that kind of got my foot in the door,” she said. “I chose to name it ‘Diaspora’ because I really wanted it to be something that was different and something that didn't look like your typical product on the shelf.”

Throughout her products, Masunda has championed the meaning of representation, which she made sure to include in her newest venture.

“It's probably one of the biggest things that we're proud of launching because it’s not just a cocktail,” she said. “It's a movement. It's gonna be one of the only type of spirits that you find with that type of name and it's celebrating the African, the Caribbeans, the Afro Latinas.”

Ebony Wine & Spirits, launched in 2020, has products that are sold in 17 North Carolina counties, Washington D.C., and Virginia. Not only does Masunda sell wine but crafts her own in a state often known for its stunning world-class wines.

“All of our wine is out of Napa, Sonoma in northern California,” she said. “We work with small batch wineries out of Napa to craft our wine.”

Aside from the newest launch, the company sells a variety of wines including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir.

“We had a huge launch planned and got hit with the pandemic and I was panicking and my daughter inspired me to launch online so that's what we did,” Masunda said. “We got on TikTok before everybody was doing reels before they went crazy. And we started like that so really grassroot started to launch, and it really took off from there.”

Masunda, who also owns Ebony Experience Gallery, a gallery and urban winery located at 7714 Matthews-Mint Hill Road, said business has its ups and downs but there are benefits.

“When it comes to events, when it comes to being able to tell our story, when it comes to just local people and national people supporting our wine, we’re all over the country and they feature our tons of different events throughout the year and it's just really exciting,” she said.

Masunda is working with her business partner and daughter La’Nayah to expanding her brand and transform the spirits industry.

“It's about opening doors for others and truly create opportunities and I am proving that our culture is to be celebrated, and we are to taking up space,” she said.

Comments