The Fizz #91: Justin Trabue of Ward Four Wines makes wines with joy and no fuss
Winemaker Justin Trabue and I speak about fundraising through grants, her winemaking practices, and the importance of community for BIPOC makers.
For this issue of the Fizz, I spoke to Justin Michelle Ward Trabue of Ward Four Wines. Justin is a technically precise and deeply intentional winemaker, but beyond that, she is a captivating individual full of joy, passion, and inspiration that you can feel across the room. I recently got the pleasure of tasting her wines at Boston’s Femme Fete wine fair. Particularly her Muscat stood out to me—aromatic, sunny, tropical, a wine that elicits an wide grin, stopping a New England winter in its tracks.
In this conversation, Justin and I speak to her history in the wine industry from her education at Cal Poly to her myriad work experiences both locally at lauded wineries like Scribe, Heitz Cellar, and Tablas Creek, to her international harvests in Australia and New Zealand. We touch on her process for fundraising through grant writing, and the work she has done to bring attention to the lack of support for BIPOC individuals in the wine industry. Her story is one of taking action, following her dreams, and doing it with joy.
Margot: You grew up in a household that appreciated wine. Can you talk about that?
Justin: I grew up in Washington DC so I’m a fourth generation DC native. I grew up in the house that my dad grew up in. We’ve had the same phone number since he was like nine years old. I am very lucky in that I did always grow up with wine on the table.
My dad went to Dartmouth and started the Dartmouth Wine and Cheese Society. For grad school, he went to Howard. My mom was in undergrad at Howard and that’s how they met. He always wined and dined her and they talked about wine and good food and good company. My mom and dad went out to California in the early nineties and they went to Paso Robles to Justin Vineyards. I was born nine months later, so I like to say wine was always in my future.
When I was in high school, we had the college talk and I was like hey wine and hospitality could be fun. They were like yeah, that’s definitely something you could do. My dad ended up having a sommelier come to our house who was this super cool Black guy and it was my first time seeing a sommelier and really getting to ask them questions and also seeing a Black sommelier! Seeing a Black person in hospitality getting to show me that wine can take you anywhere and you can really do anything with it.
I ended up running with that and I moved cross country to study in the four year wine program at Cal Poly down in San Luis Obispo. I studied in their wine business program because at that point I thought I don’t like dirt and I don’t like chemistry. I will fail organic chemistry if you make me take that class, but I can talk and I can sell things.
Margot: It sounds like you have a unique experience here. A lot of folks that I talk to, when they decide to go into wine or hospitality, their families are not supportive.
Justin: Yeah. My parents they had very cool jobs in DC politics, but their jobs were office jobs, meetings, they weren’t really working outside. My mom has always been like, I want you to have that spark. Your office can be anywhere. It can be down in New Zealand.
I did a harvest in New Zealand. My first vintage was back in 2016 and I’ve done the majority of my harvests here in the States, but I’ve also gotten to do a harvest in New Zealand and South Africa and work with all these new people that I call friends to this day. These are the experiences that parents dream of for their kids. I feel really lucky that both of my parents have been so supportive. My dad wants me to send him discounted bottles. And I’m like, you damn right! I’m gonna send you wines!
Margot: That’s wonderful. You’ve done a lot of harvest work both here and internationally. Tell me about that process. It’s a lot of work to travel for wine.
Justin: It’s a lot of work. I saved up for five years to go to New Zealand. I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan, so I was like, ooh I’ll get to work the harvest and I’ll also get to go and live my dreams and hike and explore.
Cal Poly’s wine program really helped me here. We had to learn by doing incentive internship. During my junior year, I had just gotten back from doing a study abroad in Australia and I had just seen all these people out there doing a harvest and they were from all over the world and I thought oh—I want to do that. I came back from my study abroad in Australia and met this really awesome woman, winemaker Lane Tanner who has been making wines in Santa Barbara County since the early eighties. First woman winemaker out in Santa Barbara County.
I didn’t want to work at a huge production facility. I would rather work at a tiny spot where I can really be hands on and geek out and ask my boss questions and have that that unique experience. I started out with Lane on an internship in 2016, and I ended up being her cellar rat, hand harvest rat, all the way to her assistant winemaker. We only did about 2000 cases annually. So she was like off season, I don’t have things for you to do—you can go and do a harvest abroad, but you gotta make sure you come back. I ended up in 2019 going and doing a harvest in New Zealand, in the North Island over in the Hawks Bay.
Margot: What was that process like?
Justin: It was a difficult process. First I had to make sure I had the visa and apply for a specific visa that allowed me to stay in the country for up to six months. I also had to have a job. So as I was starting this visa application, I was also applying to all of these different internships. For anyone looking for harvest, I always recommend if you don’t have Facebook, get Facebook only for Traveling Winemakers Living The Dream. It is awesome. It is a huge global Facebook group where winemakers from all over the world are posting questions about specific winemaking practices, specific regions, and then also harvest experiences and opportunities. I found my job that group.
Margot: That’s a hot tip!
Justin: It’s a super hot tip. A lot of these larger production facilities, they’ve got the money to post to these big agencies, right? But not everyone does. I was given the opportunity to work at a smaller facility. It was four full-timers and then two of us interns. It was the most incredible experience ever. I came back from that with knowledge because I was working in a larger facility, but it was still hands on enough.
Then I continued to work with Lane and Lumen for the next three years before I ended up moving up to the Napa Valley. When I first got up here to Napa, right before I ended up starting Ward Four in 2021, that’s when I did all my licensing before the 2022 harvest. I ended up doing a harvest in South Africa for three months. That was my first time working with an all Black cellar team, vineyard team and and hospitality team. That was amazing.
Margot: That’s awesome. So you’re at Scribe now? You’ve worked at a few other places as well.
Justin: I’ve worked at a few different places. I’ve worked at Scribe, Heitz. I worked for this super cool small producer called Ranchero Cellars up in Paso Robles. My first job in the industry was over at Tablas Creek. It was my first job before I even did my harvest. The last place I worked at was on the east side of Paso and that was a super cool spot called Eberle, it’s like old school CA Paso Cabernets.
Margot: How have those experiences shaped your palate and your technical approach? What have you taken away with you?
Justin: I take something from every single place I work. I definitely pay a lot of respect to Lane for my winemaking style. She’s known as the Pinot Tsarina. I treat all my wines as if I’m making Pinot. I’m really delicate in my approach, but I also understand the importance of being varietally specific. I try to be intentional with adjusting things to the varietal, and being intentional with the properties and the vineyards that I work with.
I’m working with all family owned properties. They’re all sustainable and organic. They’re all really intentional with their vineyard stewards. They’ve got teams that have been working with the company for years, if not decades which is really cool. Because I’m small enough, I get to be involved in every single step. Really this is all because of grant funding. I’m fully grant funded, so I basically took $25,000 from three different grants to start Ward Four.
Margot: How long ago was that?
Justin: I got the first grant in 2021. I had originally applied for a $25,000 grant, just flat out and they were like, we’ll give you 15,000. I was like, crazy. You’re giving me money. But I do need the additional ten grand because that is how I envisioned this. I applied for two other grants, one through the Lift Collective super cool women in wine organization run by this awesome woman named Rania, based out of Austin Texas.
Then I got an additional four grand from The Roots Fund which is all over the country and all over the world, and they do these really cool activations. I basically pitched to them that I was almost at my goal, like I need this four grand for barrels and for my last bit of compliance. They said absolutely we would love to support you. That’s been really cool to see just how supportive the industry’s been.
Margot: Are you thinking about raising more money?
Justin: I’m very happy with where I am. I am consistently applying to grants. That’s how I feel most comfortable fundraising. But I don’t want to grow too big too quickly. Right now I’m honing in on my craft. I’ve got a really cool wine club called the Spell Craft Society. I’m working on events and getting myself out there. I will want build more and then I’ll start looking into funding again. But right now, it’s been really cool to see how it’s going.
Margot: What kind of advice do you give to people when it comes to grant writing?
Justin: That first initial grant was sent to me my friend Diana Hawkins. She owns Responsible Hedonist based out of New Zealand, a badass Black woman winemaker. She messaged me and was like, hey, there’s a super cool grant. The only requirement was that you either had to have the business for two years or less, or you have an idea for a business and this is your business plan. I submitted the application two minutes before the deadline. I just spelled it out. I have this idea for Ward Four Wines. It would pay homage to my family, my city, and I would use artists from DC, but grapes from California. I submitted it and then I forgot about it.
Margot: That’s awesome. I’m assuming for these grants, you had to build out a business plan.
Justin: Yes, and I have Cal Poly to thank for that. I went to a four year wine business school, and I specifically studied wine business, so I roughly knew what the numbers looked like. It’s funny because when I went to South Africa for my harvest, I had known that I had already gotten that $15k in funding. On my way back my partner and I went to Mozambique and we were at dinner and I remember taking out a piece of paper and writing all this information down about Ward Four, like tiny little receipt paper this big. I wrote down the varietals that I wanted to work with, the regions that I wanted to work with, how much I wanted to work with, the price point that I was interested in, and slipped it away into my wallet. I keep it in one of my old wallets and every now and then I go and look at it and I’m like every single thing I wrote on this tiny little piece of paper. You’re doing it. It’s all based off of a dream. Wine is a joy.
Margot: That’s awesome. When you’re going to look for grants, is there a resource or structure that you use?
Justin: The Roots Fund, Black Wine Professionals, Asian Wine Professionals, Latinas In Wine, ABV, different organizations that are specific to wine. Sign up for their mailing lists because they will post about when they’re offering grants and certifications. Certifications are expensive! They’re sometimes offering ways to have your certifications paid for. I’ve got a friend who just applied for one through The Roots Fund and they’re getting their level two paid for.
There’s this organization La Dames d’Escoffier. I know the San Francisco chapter is doing this super cool $15,000 grant spread throughout a few different businesses. I don’t qualify for it because I don’t make the amount of revenue they require. There are so many times where I’ve started grant applications, and they’re like you need $250,000 in revenue to apply for this grant. Who the fuck has that? Not me.
Margot: Why would you need a grant at that point?
Justin: Exactly. But my advice is don’t be disheartened. There will be grants for you that you can find. Google different grants like women owned grants, LBGTQIA grants, POC specific grants. It’s okay to widen your net. Funds get hundreds of different applications from all these different businesses, a wine business can be different and unique. Sometimes it’s your own industry that sometimes forgets to help. They want to see you succeed, but sometimes they forget that they’re lifting up that ladder behind them, so it’s great to be able to look in other areas.
Margot: That’s great advice, thank you. So, Ward Four is made at a custom crush right?
Justin: Yeah, I work at a super cool custom crush facility called Obsidian Wines. They basically have this small like entrepreneur program called Rabbit Hole. You have to make under five tons and you have to/get to do all of your own work, right? So often for custom crush places you just give your work order and the team does your stuff and you’re not connected to the fruit. That is not what I wanted. I am part of every single step.
I haul my own fruit, I process my fruit, I do all my own punch downs, I do all my own racking, all my own barrel work, my bottling, like I’m there and it’s really cool to be able to really be there.
Margot: Do you think that being at a custom crush affects your wine making decisions at all?
Justin: No. During the harvest, if they’re in the middle of a huge racking and I want to come in and do my monthly topping and sulfuring, I might have to push it back a week because they got barrels everywhere and they can’t bring my barrels down. That’s fine. I’m really intentional with the facility that I choose to work with. They’re super clean. They have really great equipment and they’re helpful with all the questions that I have. During harvest time, I can come more or less whenever I need to, which is really cool.
Margot: That’s great. Are you using native yeasts or are you inoculating at all?
Justin: I start my fermentations via pied de cuve. I go into the vineyards twice before my fruit’s brought in and I create a tiny little five gallon pied de cuve. Then after a week I go back again and my first little bucket’s taken off. Then I just add to it from that second five gallon bucket. By that two week point, my fruit’s usually ready to come in and then I basically feed that pied de cuve from the larger batch that’s come in. I build my pied de cuve to about 25 gallons, and then split it between two bins. I’m always the first grapes to come in so it’s a pretty sterile environment. Then once everything’s in, who knows what’s in the air.
Margot: You work with a few grapes that aren’t the classic California varieties—Muscat, Mourvedre.
Justin: They’re grapes I really like. People see Muscat and they’re like it’s gonna be sweet. They can be sweet and they’re delicious sweet. This is dry. It’s still super floral. It’s skin contact. I get to have that conversation with everybody. It’s super cool to have it specifically within the Black community because people can see how there’s a spectrum within styles and they’re like, oh, this is super cool. Or maybe they’re like, actually I don’t like this, and that’s fine. You know what type of wine you like.
I’ve got Mourvèdre, which is this beautiful beast and I make Mourvèdre a few different ways. I’ve made it in a chilled red style. I’ve made it in a rosé, and then this year I’m making it in this savory, meaty style. I’m really excited to showcase Mourvèdre in a few different ways. I work with Barbera and I work with Petit Syrah, and I work with Viognier. In so many ways, I do make it harder to sell at wholesale because people are like, why am I buying this? What is this varietal? But then I talk with them and say this is an opportunity for you to have conversations with your customers.
They purchase a bottle Viognier, they’re like, damn, this Viognier is fantastic. They then go to their local shop and they’re like, I had this great grape called Viognier. Would you give me three different styles? Next thing you know they’re drinking Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Next thing you know, they’re feeling Viognier from out of Australia and you know they’re having other Paso Robles Viognier. And I think that’s super cool.
Margot: Do you feel like a lot of the wine work that you do is based in that kind of education?
Justin: Yeah, it’s also based in fun. It’s education, but I pair all my wines with TV shows and movies and songs and I’ve had game nights and I’ve had scary movie parties and I do scary story readings. I’m a very whimsical person. I call myself a wine witch, so I do the education but I also bring playfulness to it because education can be so stiff sometimes, and I’m not learning that way. You can’t expect other people to learn that way. There’s a time and a place, but sometimes you just gotta pair a wine with National Treasure.
Margot: Totally. I read an interview you did where you spoke about attending Radical Xchange and how meaningful that was for you. Can you say more?
Justin: That was the first wine event where I was not a minority. It was 2019, I had just gotten back from my harvest in New Zealand. I started in the wine world in 2013. I was in college and then I graduated in 2017 and two years after that I was two years postgrad working in the wine industry and it wasn’t until New Zealand that I actually met another Black person working in wine. Mind you, the last time we had seen a Black person working in wine was when I was in high school deciding to work in wine.
He was South African, and we had this discussion about how we felt that we were lacking in our visibility. I came back from that harvest and we went right into 2020. Before that, I had the opportunity to go to Radical Xchange. It was really cool because I applied for another scholarship through Chateau Ste Michelle, and they had ten different scholarship winners and we all got to stay in this community home and be in community. To each event, we had a friend that we went with, so we were never alone.
During the course of these three days, we were talking about the history of liquor and the history of rum and tipping and the history of Black women within hospitality and mammy culture and we talked about how a lot of hospitality is rooted in racism. All hospitality is rooted in racism, and how systemically the culture can shift, but these are the ways in which it’s not and why it’s not, and how we can try to change things.
Up until that point, I was the only Black student, and of course, the only Black woman student within my wine program. This was the first time that I was having conversations like this about anything within the wine culture. I came back from that four day experience with tons of new friends that look like me within the world of wine. And also with a lot of self evaluation and insight that I really needed to look into. Shortly after that is when everything started happening in 2020 with George Floyd and with the Black Lives Matter movement.
I was back in San Luis Obispo and I felt really alone. During that time I met my good friend Simonne Mitchelson. We wrote a letter to the industry, but really just a letter to ourselves, how upset we were. We sent it to some of my other friends from Radical Xchange and we created this network where we discussed ways to make the letter better. There’s a really cool organization out here called RACE Matters, and we know they’re underfunded. We sent this letter out and we did a GoFundMe for $5,000. It did that within half a day. We got it to $10,000 and then $15,000 and we ended up getting about $15,000 towards RACE matters.
The money helped them be able to do all these different activations throughout the San Luis Obispo and the Central Coast. As a result, we started working with my alma mater Cal Poly to create a scholarship program for the College of Agriculture so that you could get BIPOC students within into the program within a four year degree.
Margot: That’s amazing—what a huge accomplishment. Coming back to the winemaking, help me understand how you think about every vintage. Are you in a place where you’re looking to develop consistency or are you focusing on experimentation?
Justin: Oh, I’m pretty consistent. But I also know no two vintages are the same. So we’re not picking at the same time every year. There’s always at least a one to two week difference within when we’re picking. So my Muscat for 2025 is about 12.5%. My Muscat for 2024 was like 11%. My Muscat for ‘23 was like 10%. My Muscat for ‘22 was like 11.5%. They’re always like stylistically the same, but some years my wines are more tropical. Some years my wines are more citrusy. It’s really the grapes. I let the grapes do their own thing because I’m working with the same vineyards and I’m making my wines, like I do have my methods. I do a short cold soak. I do my two punch downs a day, every day. I do a really gentle press. For my whites, I’m stirring the lees for my Viognier, but not for my Muscat. I’ve got these different little tweaks and bits, but it’s not like if I’m not doing this specific thing, everything is ruined.
Margot: What are you inspired by to try new things or experiment with in your future?
Justin: I love trying different fun white wines. One of my good friends is based out in Paso, first Latina winemaker out there. Her name’s Nancy and her brand is called Ulloa Cellars, and she works with Vermentino and Picpoul Blanc, and she’s working with amphorae and doing all these fun things—she puts crystals around her barrels and it’s so fun.
I try to taste different types of white wines. I haven’t gone tasting in a long time, but I drink a lot of tasty things when I go to different friends’ houses and we do bottle swaps. Big West Wine Fest is one of my favorite events that I do and that’s one of the few ones where I do get to go and taste around.
Margot: You’re fourth generation in DC but you’re making wine in California. You ever think about going back and working with some local grapes like even Maryland or Virginia, closer to home?
Margot: I could, but I think I’m a California girl. My fiancé lives out here. I love California. I go back to DC pretty often. It is so cool to see the wine industry in Virginia and in Maryland and in DC and just all throughout the East Coast. The East Coast, has been in the game for a very long time and people have definitely overlooked it. It’s so awesome to see all the recognition that it’s finally getting.
Sadly, you’re seeing the migration of a lot of these bigger companies coming in and purchasing land in Virginia. But then you also hear these stories about the West Coast tiny producers that are making the move. I hope I see more small producers moving over and that the big ones leave a little space for everyone else.
Margot: What does the future look like for you? What are you dreaming about for Ward Four?
Justin: This will be a big year of travel for me. I’ll be in Boston, I’ll be in New York City. I’m reaching out to different distributors. This will be the first year where I try to get distribution. I’m pretty small, so I don’t make that much wine, but it would be great to have a distributor to take some of the wine sales off my hands.
I get into more people’s laps, and then I get to put my brain towards other things. And then I’m working on my Spell Craft Society. I open it up twice a year mid-March and in October. My two favorite months—my birthday month and spooky season. I typically open it up to about twenty people. It’s the best way to ensure that as a small business, I continue to succeed.
Margot: I’m signing up! Thanks so much for your time, Justin.
You can support Justin Trabue and Ward Four Wines by signing up for the Spell Craft Society and getting on her newsletter. Follow Justin on Instagram to stay on top of her wines and events. Distributors—reach out to Justin on Instagram. She’s actively looking for new distributor relationships.