Ayesha Curry and Sydel Curry-Lee Talk Women in Wine

Photos by Bon Appétit staff; Illustration by Olga Prader

Ayesha Curry and Sydel Curry-Lee consider themselves students of winemaking, and are happy to take you on a deep dive about cabernets and petite syrah and sauvignon blanc. The sisters-in-law became business partners in 2019 and founded the luxury brand Domaine Curry.

Coming from a family known for famous men, Ayesha said they were motivated to start a business they could pass on to their daughters and nieces. (Ayesha and Sydell are married to pro basketball players, Steph Curry and Damian Lee, respectively.)

Ayesha Curry is also well known for her cookbooks and her lifestyle brand Sweet July, which focus on food, health and wellness. Even as busy moms and entrepreneurs, what keeps them sane is their relationship with each other. In this episode, they take a deep dive into their relationship and tell us what drinks to pour during holidays.

Jamila Robinson: I’m Jamila Robinson, editor in chief of Bon Appétit and Epicurious. This is Food People. Food People is the show where I get to sit down with the luminaries making big moves in food. From chefs, to entrepreneurs, to celebrities, and activists, because food is something we all participate in.

My guests this week are Ayesha Curry and Sydel Curry-Lee, cofounders of luxury wine brand Domaine Curry. They’re also sisters-in-law. Ayesha’s husband, basketball player Steph Curry, is Sydel’s brother. The wine coming out of the Domaine Curry label is incredible. Ayesha and Sydel consider themselves students of wine, leaning on the expertise of their winemakers, while helping steer the brand to bigger and better heights. But at the heart of the brand is Ayesha and Sydel’s relationship and love for each other, and I can’t wait for you to hear the fun we had here in the studio.

I’m so excited today, because in the studio, I’m here with Ayesha Curry and Sydel Curry-Lee. Welcome to Bon Appétit.

Ayesha Curry: Thank you for having us.

Sydel Curry-Lee: Thank you.

AC: We’re so excited.

JR: We’re so happy to have you here. I’m thrilled because the last year we’ve been talking a lot about relationships. And the way that relationships drive food, they drive connection, and the way it brings people together. You two are sisters-in-law, and you are the cofounders of Domaine Curry, this incredible wine brand.

I wanted to start by you talking a little bit about your relationship.

SCL: Oh my goodness.

AC: Do you want to start?

SCL: No, you go ahead.

AC: Okay. Yes. This is my sister-in-law, sister-in-love. It’s always a beautiful thing when you get to grow up with your family and be around family, and you actually like them. It’s such a beautiful thing. But we, together, have always had this love of wine. This business venture just happened so naturally for us, and it hasn’t been a job. It’s been an absolute passion project and we're grateful for it.

I love Sydel. I hope the feeling’s mutual.

SCL: It is mutual. Obviously, I am that little sister to older brothers, so there was a little bit of, “Do I like you?” in the beginning. I will proudly say that I ran off a couple of girlfriends.

AC: Thanks.

SCL: Before Ayesha. Literally, a week into knowing her, I was like, "Ah, crap. Here we are. Well, you’re here to stay because I actually like you.” Yeah, it’s just been a very natural, authentic relationship between the two of us. I love that I was her maid of honor at her wedding. We’ve grown so much since then. Being able to just watch Ayesha as she has grown from the beginning of when I’ve known her, to becoming a business owner, a mother, and all of her ventures. Building an empire has been amazing. Definitely, a great inspiration for me because I’m in the same position as where she started. It’s been nice to be able to not only watch as she does all the things that she does, but just do it alongside her as well.

This wine venture as been so amazing from the beginning. I’m just so excited that we’re still here.

AC: Yes.

SCL: We’re growing and doing more and more.

JR: Well, you’re both entrepreneurs. Last year, Sydel, you told Essence that one of your motivations for starting Domaine Curry is that you come from a family that’s well-known for men, and you wanted something that you could pass onto your daughters and nieces. Can you talk a little bit more about that dynamic?

SCL: Yeah, absolutely. One of our favorite quotes in our family my dad loves to use is from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The wife was saying, “Well, the man is the head, the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head any way she wants.” We’re known as a family of men, but there’s strong women right beside them, leading as well, whenever we need to. We wanted to really highlight that because we were doing our thing over here, and we have amazing role models in our moms, and the other women who have helped raise us as well. We wanted something that would last a long time to show and to represent who we are as Curry women, as Alexander women, as Lee women. Yeah. It’s just been an amazing journey.

AC: It’s interesting because, the other day, Kamala Harris, somebody attacked her saying she had no humility and she wasn’t humble. Her response was, “Well, there’s a sea of women out here doing big things who choose not to be humble. Their goal isn’t to be humble in life.” I feel like that represents what Domaine Curry is so much. It’s demure, yes, but humble, never. I feel like that’s a really important message right now, is you can be loud and still take care of the things around you.

JR: Oh, I love that sentiment. To that point, Ayesha, just as you were starting Domaine Curry, one of the things that you talked a lot about was Black women, and that Black women consume so much wine in the market.

AC: Yes, absolutely. It’s interesting. We did a little research, and Black women have the buying power of about $1.6 trillion when it comes to the buying power within the wine world. 12% of the people that are buying wines are Black women. The market is there, and the desire to drink really great wines is there as well. We’re talking the premium…

SCL: $75-plus.

AC: Yes.

SCL: Yeah.

AC: Yes. The market is there. There just needs to be more representation. For us, to be able to come forward as Domaine Curry, and fill a very small void in that white space is great.

JR: Tell me about the wines. What do you love about the wines?

AC: Where do we begin?

SCL: Our Founder’s Blend, which is our red blend as well, is a beautiful red…[it’s] fruit-forward, some petite sirah in there, some Zinfandel, [a] beautiful combination of grapes. It’s got some Merlot in there, which is a new thing for us that we have.

AC: Yes, a journey.

SCL: We have gone through a journey with Merlot. But then, we met with our winemaker Chrissy, and she was like, “Well, I have this new blend for you guys. I want you to try it. I’m not going to tell you what’s in it, but just try it. It’s an idea that I have for the Founder’s Blend.” We tried it and we’re like, “Oh my gosh, this is so good. This is amazing. This is what we would actually drink.” She’s side-eyeing us. “There’s a lot of Merlot in there.” We’re like, “What?!”

We haven’t had good Merlot until we had…

AC: Founder’s Blend.

SCL: Our Domaine Curry Founder’s Blend. And then, our Cab. It’s a very Bordeaux-style of wine that we have been drawn to, which was the pillar of Domaine Curry and the inspiration behind it.

Going back to why we started it, Ayesha stood up at dinner one evening at my mom’s birthday, back in 2015, and she was talking about how my mom was a big, bold glass of Cab. She was bold, but approachable. It gets better with time. Sophisticated, but can go with anything. We looked at each other and we’re like, “Oh, that’s it.”

AC: That’s it.

SCL: “That makes sense for us.” Yes, our Cab has some Cab Franc in there as well. It’s just a beautiful blend of really cherry, that dark chocolaty flavor profile, and it’s beautiful.

AC: Yeah.

JR: For anyone whose listening, we are sitting in front of bottles of your Cab from 2022, coming right out of Napa Valley. Is that your favorite now, the Cab?

SCL: Going into the holidays, yes.

AC: Yeah, for sure. I feel like we never shy away from trying different varietals. We are all over the place.

SCL: It’s all in the name of research.

AC: Yeah. That’s what we tell ourselves. Like she said, our winemaker Chrissy is amazing. But anything that she brings us, we’re willing to try and play around with. Right now, ’tis the season for our big, bold reds. Our blend, our Cab.

But come springtime, we typically shift to that Sauvignon Blanc.

JR: Paint me a picture of how you’d hope your customers are enjoying your wine during the holiday season.

AC: Well, I think what we love about our own brand is that we provide an approachability. We're not signing up to be wine experts. We’re students of wine. I think what I love, and what I want people to feel when they drink our wines, is that approachability. And the sincerity that’s gone into the blends. We are really there, every blending session, being mixologists, and deep-diving into the education and the background of where our grapes are coming from, and how each lot was made, and figuring out what the best blend is going to be for our consumers.

I want them to understand that every time, they’re going to experience something new with each vintage. They’ll be consistency, but they’ll always be something to keep them excited and coming back for more.

JR: We're going to take a quick break. When we get back, how getting acquired by The Prisoner Wine Company has helped Ayesha and Sydel expand their vision for Domaine Curry.

Last year, Domaine Curry was acquired by one of the largest US wine brands. Can you talk a little bit about what your path for growth has been, and what’s that been like for you?

SCL: Yeah. The acquisition with The Prisoner Wine Company was probably one of the most, outside of the origin story of why we created Domaine Curry, authentic and genuine partnerships that could happen for us. Ayesha, obviously talking about the Black representation that’s in wine and the lack thereof, but the consumption of it. With our lead, Bukola Ekundayo, she has just the same vision that we would want and have for Domaine Curry. Being led by someone like her, who is passionate about breaking the barriers of Black women, Black people in wine is so important. Having that partnership, and just that same thought process has been amazing.

One of the struggles that we went through with our smaller label before the acquisition was just production. We just didn’t have enough because it was a small-

JR: That’s a good problem to have.

SCL: It’s a great problem. It’s a great problem. One of the things was like, “Oh, the new vintage is out,” and then it’d get sold out in a second. People were like, “We never got our hands on it. We want it so bad.” Being able to have The Prisoner’s outreach and resources has been huge for us as well, because we're able to get in people’s moments and in their lives, because that’s what we want to do. That’s what wine is. It is moments, it is celebrations, it is hard conversations as well. Having a company like The Prisoner, and them back our goals, we’re so, so thankful to have them in our corner.

JR: Does the acquisition allow you to be more involved in the winemaking process? Ayesha, you were saying you were students of wine.

AC: Absolutely. Yes. More than ever. I think what empowered us so much, I remember our first meeting, walking in, and looking at the room and being like, “We are surrounded by fierce women right now.” We hadn’t been in that situation before. Then we do a deep-dive into our meeting like, “Hey, this is what things are going to look like going forward,” and they were listening to us. We were like, “This is new.” We finally had a voice, and we had legs to stand on. Then we were vulnerable with them about our learning process through the winemaking. They were like, “We’re taking you with us. Hook our arm, and let’s go.”

It’s been an educational process, but they’ve also empowered us on the back end to be like, “No, you know what you’re talking about. You can go out and speak to your brand in a confident way.” We’ve just loved every second of this so far. We can’t wait for people to see what’s next.

SCL: Yeah. I recently actually just went, they harvested our Sauvignon Blanc grapes for the next vintage. I got to go and do the blessing of the grapes, and that was just such a community-focused thing for all the employees that are at The Prisoner. We just had a nice gathering, toasted to grapes. I prayed over the grapes. I said thank you to everyone who had their hand in producing these amazing wines. There’s so much community behind our brand and it's amazing.

JR: I have to hear more about the blessing of the grapes.

SCL: Incredible.

JR: What’s that like, as a ritual?

SCL: Just to give you an inside view, Chrissy is the leader of the whole production. She, again, just says thank you. There’s a lot of gratefulness that is happening during that moment, because people are out there, and they’re putting their bodies out there, and they’re just working hard for great wine. There’s so much love and joy behind this process. There’s some saber, is that what it’s called?

JR: You’re sabering?

SCL: Sabering? Ayesha’s a pro at it. I wish she was there, that would have been amazing. There was some sabering of some bottles. I got to try some fresh-pressed grapes right from the machine. Yeah. I got to meet with a lot of the employees there, and just say thank you. Thank you for all that they do to help us come out with these amazing bottles.

JR: Totally into the gratitude. But we’ve got to go back to Ayesha doing the sabering.

AC: Oh. Yeah. It’s kind of my party trick. Anything with an edge, I can saber a bottle. I can do it with an iPhone. I have a very special Sweet July saber that I have. I can do it with my kitchen knife.

SCL: I feel like you did it with a shoe once. I could just be making that up, but I have a memory of a shoe.

AC: I may have, then. As long as the bottle…

JR: A nice knife-edge mule hitting the bottle open.

AC: Typically, Champagne, and it’s got to be icy cold, which we do hope to get into one day. I figure if I throw it out there, it’s going to happen.

JR: I’m into the bubbles, also.

AC: Yes.

SCL: We have a lot of bubble moments in our family, so we need some bubbles.

AC: Yeah.

JR: We’re going to take another break. When we get back, how Ayesha’s Jamaican heritage pops up in the kitchen, and where the Curry women are going next.

I want to talk a little bit about your personal life, and how your life happens in the kitchen. It’s Bon Appétit, and we are always trying to get back into the kitchen. You two are entrepreneurs, but you’re also parents and busy moms. Talk a little bit about how food and drink fits into your everyday lives.

AC: Food and drink for me is everything. My core background is hospitality. Chef Michael Mina is my mentor and my business partner with all of the restaurants. I pretty much live, eat, and breathe food. But what’s interesting is that, post-COVID, I had this lull in food because I lost my taste buds for a solid nine months. It was devastating. It still has never come back the way that they were before. It's just been a journey.

Every day, I try a little bit more and a little bit more. I know I’ll get back to that lust that I have for the kitchen. But we’re working on it, because COVID was no joke for many, obviously.

JR: During COVID, I remember reading about you, and how much more you were doing at home, and how much more you were doing in the kitchen. Did you start gardening?

AC: Yeah, I’m a crazy garden lady. It’s still going strong, just on a smaller scale. But I do love gardening…

SCL: Chickens.

AC: When it works. Yeah, I’ve got six chickens at home. I love all the homestead-y stuff to a certain level, as much of it that I can do with the little time that I have.

JR: What’s the last thing that you cooked when your taste buds were coming back that felt like a victory?

AC: I did this huge Indian dinner. I made paratha from scratch. I did a masala. I did this chai-spiced bourbon cherry cocktail, and it was just fierce.

JR: I love how when you’re talking about your food, your voice gets very animated [inaudible 00:17:41].

SCL: You get very, “I went back to the day.”

JR: “I made this amazing,” and I’m like, “Yes, I want that.”

AC: Chai-spiced bourbon cherry cocktail. Yeah, I want that in a cake.

JR: Oh.

AC: Or, a pie, like a cheesecake. Test kitchen, you hear me?

JR: That’s amazing.

AC: Are we feeling that?

JR: You were mentioning Sweet July. I think it’s really important to talk about this brand, and its emphasis not only on community, skincare, wellness, recipes, but this entire aegis or oeuvre of gratitude. You’ve authored two cookbooks, Ayesha. Are we going to see more recipes in cookbooks from you?

AC: When the time is right, absolutely. It’s interesting because, with the magazine, with Sweet July Magazine, we pivoted to doing food as well. I’ve done food with Bon Appétit [magazine] in the past, and that’s been amazing. I think I really need.… When I take a step back to do a book, there really has to be something that inspires me for the time.

With the first book, it was this culmination of everything that I was thinking about for a solid 10 years. With the second book, it was, “Whoa, I had all these children, and life got busy, and a lot of those recipes were very unrealistic for what I’m experiencing now. How can I make that easy and still delicious for people at home?" That was the inspiration behind this book.

The next book, I would like to do something…I’m Jamaican, and that’s my core roots that I know, and grew up on, and live and breath. That’s the ethos of who I am and makes me who I am. I would like to do a deep-dive on that, and more of a biographical book. I found out my great-grandma was a cattle farmer in Jamaica, and [she] owned a farm and was the local town butcher. I don’t know why they waited until adulthood, when I'm in a full-blown food career to let me know this. But stuff just starts to make sense when you start realizing the lineage. I’d love to do a deep dive on that and figure out more of who I am because there’s a lot that I don’t know.

JR: How does your Jamaican heritage play out in your cooking day-to-day? Is that something that comes into the kitchen with you?

AC: Absolutely. I feel like there's always some sort of spin on a traditional dish that’s not so Jamaican, and I find a way to add some sort of Jamaican to it. Not to mention all of my kids at home, all they do is ask for peg bread and hard dough bread. I’m like, “Guys, that’s not a staple food. We can enjoy it, but come on.”

I love it. It’s what I run to anytime I need to feel comforted. I’ll make a big pot of oxtail if I’m missing my mom and my grandma. Or if I just want to feel like I did when I was 13. I’m like, “Well, I'll make oxtail. That’ll solve everything.” It usually does. I feel like it plays a huge part in who I am.

JR: I love that. Just thinking about an oxtail taking you back to when you were 13, the comforting nature of food, and how that plays out every day. That’s so much of what we love to discuss at Bon Appétit.

What’s next for you? You're conquering the wine world. How do you see your lives, and Sweet July, and Domaine Curry growing over the next five, 10, 15 years?

AC: I think, for me with Sweet July, what's exciting is we're opening our first café, and I’m doing that in partnership with Michael Mina. He is doing all of the food programming at the Regent Hotel in Santa Monica. He was so kind as to partner with me on the café space within that food program. First Sweet July full-blown café, amazing menu.

JR: You’ve got some recipes on that menu.

AC: Yes, for sure. For sure. That’s been a fun process. We’ll see what people at the beach like to eat.

JR: Fantastic.

AC: When it comes to Domaine Curry, we are just excited that we’re going to be able to hit all of the markets. We’re in the process of developing something that is in a more approachable price point. I’ll let you speak to it a little bit.

SCL: Yeah. Right now, we’re just in the research aspect of it. But we have been hearing our audience loud and clear, and obviously we create these luxury wines that people are buying. However, we also want to cater to a wide scope of people. Starting another concept from the ground up takes a little bit to just make sure we get it right, but we’re really excited to explore this lifestyle branch of Domaine Curry and see where that can go.

Really, the sky is the limit for us, especially working with The Prisoner Wine Company. It’s just the whole world is opened up to us. It’s exciting, just to brainstorm, and just to see, “Yeah, we can do that. We can do this, we can do that.” There's a lot more coming from Domaine Curry. At the end of the day, it’ll be amazing wines that we love, we put our heart and our passion into. It's a legacy. At the end of the day, this is a legacy, and we are 100% in.

JR: Fantastic. Anything that we haven't asked about you that it's important for listeners to know?

AC: I think it's important for listeners to know that, while we are filling this space and representing the Black female community, that this wine is for everybody.

JR: Yes.

SCL: Yes.

AC: This wine is for everyone to drink. It’s absolutely delicious. I hope people choose to join us and drink with us now, and evolve with us later. It’s going to be a fun journey.

JR: Thank you so much for joining us. It has been such a pleasure to talk to you about all of your ventures. Ayesha, Sydel, lovely to meet you.

SCL: Thank you.

AC: Thanks for having us.

JR: Thanks for being on Food People at Bon Appétit.

AC: Thank you.

SCL: Thank you so much.

JR: If you want to pick up your own bottle of Domaine Curry, head to domainecurrywine.com. The 2022 Founder’s Blend and Cabernet Sauvignon are now on sale.

Thanks for listening to Food People. If you enjoyed this episode, please give us a rating and review on your podcast app of choice. Hit that follow button so you never miss an episode. I’m your host, Jamila Robinson. Our senior producer is Michele O’Brien. Jake Loomis is our studio engineer, and he also mixed this episode. Jordan Bell is our executive producer. Chris Bannon is Condé Nast’s head of global audio.

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit