BENTON CITY, Wash.
Shae Frichette is the Co-Owner and assistant winemaker at Frichette Winery in Benton City.
Frichette is one of two winemakers in Washington at are Black women.
Frichette grew up in South Carolina and graduated from Winthrop University with a B.A. in theatre, leadership and facilitator certifications from Franklin Covey, Ken Blanchard and Achieve Global.
Shae Frichette and her husband Greg met in Los Angeles when she was working on moving up the corporate ladder.
Greg told Shae he wanted to have a baby and move to be closer to family.
Frichette thought he meant closer to her family in South Carolina, but he meant his family in Washington.
In order to settle where they would be moving, they left it up to fate.
“We’re going to flip a quarter and if it lands on heads, we’re going to move to Washington. If it lands on tails, we got to South Carolina. Well, the darn coin landed on heads so off to Washington we decided to move,” said Frichette.
Frichette and her husband Greg moved to Benton City and opened the Frichette tasting room in 2013.
Frichette didn’t know much about wine other than she liked to drink it.
“The experience I had in winemaking was drinking wine. I mean that’s how you become an expert right?” said Frichette.
Despite the number of winemakers in our region, very few are owned by Black women.
“When I came into wine, I had never seen a Black female winemaker. So even coming into wine I was intimidated, really so I kind of stayed in the background when it came to Frichette,” said Frichette.
Frichette attended an event where she met different Black women winemakers.
Frichette was inspired by the meeting to make her own label called Sashay to go along with the Frichette brand.
“That really gave me some empowerment and the boost I needed to think more creatively about what I did from a winemaking standpoint. I wanted to create a wine that was more of an expression of me,” said Frichette.
Frichette can add a mentor to her impressive career.
Frichette works with eMERGE, a STEM-based leadership program for girls.
In 2015 just two years after opening the Frichette tasting room, she won the Athena Young Professional’s Woman of the year award.
Frichette wasn’t expecting to win this award.
“To have recognition, it was eye-opening. I was like wow, you could be anyone. Anyone in a community can jump in and contribute,” said Frichette.
Frichette wants people to know there are places for people like her in the wine industry.
“I’m ecstatic that I can show that this is an industry that people of color can be in. I think about the way that I felt when I saw a Black female winemaker and that was impactful for me. I feel blessed to have had that opportunity that I can be successful in this industry,” said Frichette.
