Today we’d like to introduce you to Donae Burston.
Donae, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After graduating in 1998 with a Mathematics Degree from Clark Atlanta University and an Industrial Engineering degree from Georgia Tech, like so many, I entered corporate America. After a few years working as an IT consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, I realized that this was not the career path for me.
Not too long after, I began working promotions for various liquor brands before landing a full-time job as the Hennessy Cognac and Moet & Chandon Ambassador in Atlanta. After a few years in this role, I moved to NY and began working for Heineken as the African American promotions and sponsorships manager, overseeing the Heineken Red Star Soul music tour and other activations around NBA All-Star, Grammys, BET awards, etc.
After a chance encounter with the newly appointed CEO of Moet Hennessy USA at a very high profile event in NYC I returned to Moet Hennessy, this time as the consumer development manager in Miami overseeing the entire SE region for Hennessy Cognac. Over the next 10 years, I worked on various brands including Belvedere Vodka, Veuve Clicquot, Moet & Chandon, and Dom Perignon.
In 2016, I was ready for a new challenge so I took a job with Champagne Armand de Brignac managing all sales and marketing activity across the Southeast, Latin America, & the Caribbean. During my tenure here, I started to get the itch to start my own brand. In 2018, I was introduced to the owner of a winery in St. Tropez during a visit to Cannes and the rest is history.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it has not been a smooth road. There have been three main struggles along the way.
#1 – Access to Capital. I think this is a common problem for so many entrepreneurs and was the biggest hurdle in the beginning. In the alcoholic beverage business, you have to spend a lot of money up front to start production before you sell one bottle.
#2 – Gatekeepers. Gatekeepers in the adult beverage are the distributors that you need by law to legally sell your product in each state. Convincing these guys that they need to give a new brand a chance is a daunting task. Once you convince the Distributors, you now need to convince retail store buyers, restaurant beverage managers, and wine buyers/sommeliers to carry your brand. Often times, these buyers are so overwhelmed with people pitching new brands to them daily that many won’t even take a meeting or respond to emails or phone calls.
#3 – All Rosé’s are not all the same. A Rosé from St Tropez is different from a Rosé from Bandol, and a Rosé from Provence is very different from a Rosé from California or Oregon. They all have very different styles and taste profiles.
Please tell us about La Fête du Rosé (La Fête Rosé).
La Fête Rosé is the first-ever minority-owned Rosé wine brand produced in St. Tropez. We produce a premium rose wine that aims to be inclusive with its marketing and consumer outreach. For far too long, most rose brands on the market only catered to the female general market consumers ignoring African Americans, Hispanic Americans, & Men. We aim to change to that!
La Fete Rose’s literal translation is the “The Rose Party” so for us, our brand is a party and everyone is invited. This will be manifested in everything that we do.
The thing that makes me most proud is our cause marketing platform. As an avid traveler, I know what impact travel has on a persons life. That said, we will donate a portion of the proceeds from every bottle sold to various programs and organizations that provide travel experiences to underserved young people.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Summers at the neighborhood pool. I would be there daily swimming, relay races, playing Marco Polo, and doing tricks off the diving boards.
Pricing:
- $24 per bottle and you can purchase direct on our website at www.lafeterose.com
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lafeterose.com
- Email: info@lafeterose
- Instagram: @lafeterose
- Facebook: @lafeterose
- Twitter: @lafeterose
Image Credit:
@Ronhill, @nathanlefbvre76
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