Bertony Faustin

About Bertony Faustin

I’m going to be honest with you right up front: I never tasted wine before I became a winemaker. I had no vineyard experience. No winemaking degree. No connections in Oregon’s wine country. No safety net. What I had was a name my father gave me — Bertony Faustin — a name I spent years letting people shorten until the day I stopped. I had Haiti in my blood, Brooklyn in my bones, and a plot of land in North Plains, Oregon that nobody thought I could turn into anything. I built it anyway. And I’m still building. Today, I’m Oregon’s first recorded Black vineyard owner and winemaker. I am the founder and CEO of Abbey Creek Vineyard & Winery, a 15-acre working vineyard and winery known for its Pinot Noir, its cultural boundary-pushing, and its refusal to ask anyone’s permission to exist. I’ve shared the stage with Martha Stewart and Trevor Noah at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival. I’ve stood before the Haitian Ambassador in Beverly Hills representing Black excellence in American wine. My wines are on the permanent menu at Marcus Bar & Grille. And I’ve done all of it in overalls — because who I am has never been negotiable. But here’s what I’ve learned after 15+ years of building something from nothing in a space that didn’t expect me:• Your story is not your liability. It is your greatest competitive advantage. • Authenticity is not a soft skill. It is a business strategy.• The rooms that feel most impossible to enter are the ones you were born to change. These insights form the foundation of what I call the ARC Framework™ — Authentic, Resilient, Connected — the operating system I use in every keynote, workshop, and conversation I bring to stages across the country. I speak to Fortune companies, Chambers of Commerce and professional associations, wine industry leaders, universities, and youth organizations across the United States. My keynotes are not inspiration talks — they are activation experiences. Audiences leave with a framework they can use immediately.I am also the creator of the HipHop Wine & Chill™ experience, producer of the documentary Red, White & Black — a film about underrepresented minorities in Oregon’s wine industry — and the man who showed up to a black-tie event in overalls and turned the moment into a movement. Every room I walk into leaves different than it arrived. If that\'s the energy your next event needs — I\'m ready when you are. My work is about one thing: proving that where you come from is not a footnote. It’s the headline.Sante— Bertony Faustin

Experience

1. Founder & CEO

   Abbey Creek Vineyard

   Jan 2008 — Present · North Plains, OR, US

   Founded Oregon’s first recorded Black-owned vineyard and winery on 15 acres in the Chehalem Mountains AVA — an act widely regarded as one of the most significant cultural disruptions in Pacific Northwest wine history.• Produce award-winning Pinot Noir, white, and rosé wines marketed nationally, including permanent menu placement at Marcus Bar & Grille (Atlanta, GA)• Designed and launched the HipHop Wine & Chill experience — a pioneering cultural wine concept that redefined wine hospitality and attracted new consumers to the category• Created and produced Red, White & Black, a documentary on underrepresented minorities in Oregon’s wine industry, screened at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival• Developed the P.O.P.(Port of Pinot) wine brand, presented to the Haitian Ambassador at an exclusive Beverly Hills Ambassador event• Managed vineyard operations, winemaking, tasting room hospitality, event production, brand strategy, and national sales with a skeleton team while holding multiple concurrent jobs in the founding years• Built a consumer email list of subscribers and a VIP Ambassador program recognized with hip-hop culture tier naming

Education

• The School of Built-It-Anyway

  Self-Directed, Brooklyn, Oregon, Haiti, and Every Room That Said "No"