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‘The Offering’ wine club offers an accessible avenue into viniculture through cultural storytelling
Brion Cephus and Kathline Chery this year launched The Offering, a new Charlotte wine club focused on making wine culture more accessible. Here, Cephus and Chery are at Nebedaye Farms in Indian Trail. (Photo by Tyler Bunzey)
by Tyler Bunzey
Wine culture can be terribly intimidating. Many have found themselves at the counter of Bar à Vins, The Bohemian or any of Charlotte’s other gorgeous wine bars feeling like they need a sommelier certification simply to pick out something they like.
Between the old/new world distinction, varied naming conventions and a dizzying diversity of varietals, the depth and rigor of European wine traditions and vocabulary can be prohibitive to the average drinker.
And since North Carolina doesn’t have a robust winemaking history, most who live here may not have a strong cultural connection to the fermented grape.
Brion Cephus and Kathline Chery are doing something about this. Their new Charlotte wine club series, called “The Offering,” refocuses the conversation about wine toward its ritual roots as a communal connector.
“When you remove the Eurocentric view out of the conversation, wine can be many things. It is an art form,” said Chery, who is a winemaker. “At the end of the day, it combines culture, chemistry, history, all into one single beverage.”
The series centers culture, not technique or rote tradition, as wine’s primary identifier. Cephus — a professionally trained wine specialist and event curator — and Chery leverage connections across the food, beverage and cultural industries in Charlotte to provide a multi-sensory, narrative connection for wine lovers and newcomers both.
Chery and Cephus seek to build a wine culture through the simple yet profound act of storytelling. Their series and approach to wine culture illustrate how a story — complemented with a raised glass — is what wine is really about.
Challenging wine’s conventions
Kathline Chery has studied winemaking at various programs and vineyards across the U.S. (Photo courtesy of Chery)
Although The Offering is new to the Charlotte region’s wine culture, Chery and Cephus are not.
Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Midwood neighborhood, Chery developed an interest in the food industry, but she felt cut off from the sources of the restaurants she loved. Her curiosity compelled her to get involved in a New York farming initiative called Black Urban Gardeners (BUGS).
Chery got bitten by the bug, so to speak, and in 2014, she enrolled in the Rodale Institute’s farming program in rural Berks County, Pa. Despite the culture shock she felt as a city girl in a rural program, the institute introduced her to sustainable farming techniques. Chery helped with a variety of tasks around the farm, but it was an experiment with surplus apple juice after a fall harvest that piqued her interest in the art of fermentation.
After a brief tenure back in New York working on urban agriculture projects, Chery started to pursue winemaking full time. In 2019, she did a stint “woofing” (a term used to describe labor in exchange for housing and food) on a farm in Mason County, Texas, before moving north to help plant a vineyard in southern Vermont.
The next year, her passion — and Covid’s citywide shutdown — propelled her cross-country to Oregon wine country at the acclaimed Hiyu Wine Farm. Here, Chery built the skill set to launch her own winemaking practice, which she brought back with her to a farm co-op in Vermont before working in Asheville to learn from Chris Denesha of Plēb Urban Winery.
Then, in 2024, Chery was forced to come to Charlotte after Hurricane Helene’s devastation of Plēb’s vineyards and facilities.
But with that curse came a blessing. One day, working behind the counter of Matt Green’s Substrate Wine and Vermouth bar in Optimist Park, she met Cephus.
While Chery was exploring the roots of winemaking across the country, Cephus was training in Charlotte under Johnson & Wales University’s inaugural sommelier minor cohort in 2016. Under the mentorship of the late Catherine Rabb, who owned the Myers Park staple Fenwick’s, Cephus decided to pursue specialization in front-of-house service.
“There are not a lot of Black professionals in the front-of-house space,” Cephus said. “There’s the stigma that they don’t have the chops in their personality to be at the front to engage the guests in a way that is truly hospitable.”
He sought to challenge that stereotype in a sector of the industry steered primarily by white men.
Brion Cephus trained in Johnson and Wales University’s inaugural sommelier minor in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Cephus)
After graduating with an associate’s degree in culinary arts and food service management in 2018, Cephus began managing beverage programs for hotel brands like Marriott and Omni. But something was missing.
“I realized that there was a disconnect with how I was able to express myself through the medium of wine,” Cephus said.
He left the corporate side of the industry in 2019 to pursue the kind of work he’s done since: event curation around wine culture through music, fashion, food and storytelling. Chery and Cephus immediately bonded over their similar relationship to wine traditions, and they began dreaming of what they could do together.
Offering new traditions
Chery and Cephus launched The Offering in May 2026 to highlight that wine was — in the words of Cephus — “almost supernatural in many ways.”
Inspired by the works of Toni Morrison, whom Chery regularly read while fermenting her own wine in Vermont in 2020, they wanted to explore the spirituality of wine and winemaking.
Their first Offering honored this inspiration, centering a wine experience around Morrison’s debut novel “The Bluest Eye.” Partnering with Justin Hazelton of the now-closed Lorem Ipsum and Chef Darryl Cooper, formerly of Jimmy Pearls, the duo curated a tasting event around one of Chery’s cold-weather Vermont wines that she called “The Bluest” and “Saudade,” a champagne method apple-grape-plum wine.
As participants sipped her wine creations, they enjoyed a sound bath from Afeni Grace of the Harvey B. Gantt Center and a DJ set from Brianna Daniels (aka Blackasthecosmos).
When Cephus and Chery sold out of VIP tickets at that first event, they quickly began planning their sequel. The second Offering was held in August at Substrate, this time exploring the importance of indigo, which has a long history in the Black South. It was once cultivated indigenously across West Africa and grown in the U.S. through the forced labor of the enslaved. The duo wanted to honor the ancestral roots and routes of the plant without whitewashing its history.
Studying the work of farmer, scholar and activist Bernard Singleton, Chery fermented a blueberry indigo sparkling wine with crops from Singleton’s Nebedaye Farms in Indian Trail, which he complemented with his vermouth-style ferment.
Whereas the first Offering focused on Morrison’s literature, the second examined fashion. Local designers like Gordon Holliday and Shenikah L. Williams shared their expertise using indigo in the fabric dyeing process, while Perrine DeShield Jenkins lent her expertise to explain the long and storied history of the crop.
Chery and Cephus are finalizing the concept for the third Offering that will be announced in the coming weeks. As they continue, they want both wine lovers and the wine-curious alike to have a place to deepen their relationship with the beverage.
Cephus compares the gatherings to church, pointing out the communal experience of sharing a drink: “You do not have to be a certified wine lover, you don't have to be a wine professional, you don't have to be anything in terms of wine…you just come in just to have the experience and come as you are.”
Tyler Bunzey is a professor of cultural studies, music journalist and independent artist manager based in Charlotte. Reach him at [email protected].
Today's supporting sponsor is Trinity Episcopal School. Trinity Episcopal School is holding K-8 Open Houses to learn more about its academic program and its community of curious learners and leaders.
This week in Charlotte: Blue tsunami includes N.C., Mecklenburg County; Hemp businesses shutter; Acting superintendent gets raise; Raki McGregor breaks his silence
On Saturdays, The Ledger sifts through the local news of the week and links to the top articles — even if they appeared somewhere else. We’ll help you get caught up. That’s what Saturdays are for.
Top news of the week
Democrats notch sweeping gains across N.C.: (Ledger/The Election Hub) Democrats won control of the N.C. House for the first time since 2010 and flipped several Republican-held congressional seats, including former state House Speaker Tim Moore’s Charlotte-area district.
How Mecklenburg turned even bluer in 2026: (Ledger🔒) What voting data reveals about turnout, ticket-splitting and suburban shifts in Mecklenburg County after Democrats won resounding victories around the country.
N.C. hemp businesses begin closing ahead of federal ban: (Ledger🔒) The federal redefinition of hemp slated to go into place later this year would effectively bring an industry that employs thousands in North Carolina to its knees. Already, businesses are shutting down. It is too soon to tell where hemp legislation will end up federally in the coming months after this week’s blue wave.
Ledger originals
Acting CMS superintendent receives pay raise: (Ledger🔒) The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education gave Melissa Balknight a pay raise to serve as acting superintendent, newly released personnel records show.
Charlotte emerges as a disc golf hotbed: (Ledger) Mecklenburg County has become one of the country’s busiest disc golf destinations, drawing players from across the U.S. with dozens of mostly free courses and year-round play.
Another round of backyard housing grants?: (Ledger🔒) Hundreds of people applied for the city’s initial program to help fund small backyard homes, but the housing department leader says changes are needed before another round.
CMS School Choice lottery now open: (Ledger) On Monday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ School Choice lottery opened after a less-than-smooth lottery experience for many CMS parents last year.
Duke Energy braces for data center power surge: (Ledger🔒) In its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, leaders at Charlotte-based Duke Energy say 5.2 gigawatts of power for data centers that are under construction now will begin using energy in the second half of 2027 and 2028.
Other local news headlines
Raki McGregor breaks his silence: (The Charlotte Optimist) In his first public comments since the district’s contracting controversy emerged, consultant Raki McGregor said that his $30,000-a-month consulting work helped push a CMS affordable housing initiative forward.
Berger Jr. signals 2028 run for N.C. chief justice: (WRAL) Republican Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. changed his campaign committee filing to list “Chief Justice” as the office sought in 2028, after previously announcing he would not seek reelection to his current associate justice seat.
Nourish Up CEO stepping down: (Press Release) After more than a decade leading Charlotte hunger-relief nonprofit Nourish Up, Tina Postel is leaving to become president and CEO of Lowcountry Food Bank in Charleston, S.C.
From the Ledger family of newsletters
A disc golf mecca. Plus: Raki McGregor breaks silence on CMS controversy; Strong economy forecast into 2027; Toppman reviews ‘Frankenstein’; CMS lottery opens; CMS to buy $17M office building; Charlotte FC’s scoring star; CATS cracks down on fare evasion
Wednesday (🔒)
Democrats flip key seats across N.C. Plus: Podcast on covering Billy Graham, city mulls revival of program to encourage backyard houses, water restrictions end, Nourish Up CEO stepping down
Friday (🔒)
Some N.C. hemp businesses are starting to shut down. Plus: Data centers to hit the grid next year, Duke says; Data gives details on Tuesday's local voting; CMS releases acting superintendent's salary; Nature Museum plan
Ways of Life (🔒)
She could – and did – do it all. Also remembered: A dedicated church member who helped organize medical mission trips to Haiti; the CFO of the Alcoholic Beverage Control board; a person called one of Charlotte's best kindergarten teachers
Charlotte’s growth threatens an unlikely bird habitat. Plus: Increased economic investments, bell schedule changes reconsidered, Red Line worries, padel plans
Westwood mulls retirement. Plus: Charlotte aims for 4th place in Miami finale
‘Frankenstein’ shows its seams: This show runs through Nov. 15 at Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Rd.
EpiCentre’s next stage. Plus: Biggest building permits in October; Padel coming to Brookhill Village; Notable changes in UDO text amendment; Mellow Mushroom to CLT; Gateway Station briefly discussed at council committee meeting; Excelsior Club site sells to developers
