Rada Griffin is out here changing the wine game! The Huntsville, Alabama-based space worker created her own wine business, Anissa Wakefield Wines, and is the first black woman in Alabama to do so. According to News One, Rada took a series of online classes through Cornell University’s Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration in 2019. With the information she gained, she launched her wine business!

That’s not all Rada does. She is also a personal chef. The boss explained that she’s been obsessed with wine ever since she could remember. “Wine to me is food. The same way you view food when a chef puts a plate in front of you, and it’s beautiful, and you can’t wait to taste it, that’s the same way I think about wine,” she said. “So I just wanted to do more.”

Although Rada has accomplished a lot, she has had several setbacks due to the California fires in 2019, which caused her grape harvest to be ruined. “The grapes absorbed some of the smokiness, and we just didn’t want to take a chance with that harvest from my first year,” she explained. The minor setback didn’t hold her back too long. Reports show wine crops are finally starting to grow back.

“We watched the grapes just take off this past April – all the way through harvesting in September and October. Now I’m blending.” If you ever needed a sign to get your business off the ground, Roommates do it! You’ll never know when you’ll end up being the first! Congrats Rada!