The wine industry is not going to survive in anything close to its current form without broadening its appeal and attracting new customers. Remarkably, serious and obvious efforts to do this still seem uncommon. Lots of producers are making small tweaks to their offerings, perhaps to make them more experiential, or adding wines to their portfolios that they think will appeal to younger audiences. Those with bigger budgets are trying out new marketing or developing canned wines, hoping that new formats will appeal. These things are all, frankly, small potatoes.
Enter Vin et Hip Hop, an event self-described as “bridging worlds through cultural exchange.” The brainchild of Burgundy winemaker Jeremy Seysses and wine communicator Jermaine “Wolf of Wine” Stone, along with agency Hautes Côtes, Vin et Hip Hop began in 2022 as a way of celebrating the intersection of wine culture and hip hop culture. Both described by organizers as “worlds long rooted in craftsmanship, place, and cultural expression.”
For someone like me, who has watched the standard parade of cookie-cutter wine events unroll year after year, the idea of something like Vin et Hip Hop is simply thrilling. Around 20 years ago, I remember one of the big cultural stories in wine involved major Champagne houses distancing themselves from, and in some cases, outright disapproving of the use of their products in rap songs and rap videos, which directly led to the rise of the Ace of Spades Champagne brand. That was sad, racist, and unbelievably short-sighted on the part of the wine industry.
I’m happy to see times have changed, at least a little. In mid-March, Vin et Hip Hop brings three days of serious wine and music together in Los Angeles. The event begins with 8 star-studded winemaker dinners hosted at top restaurants around the city on March 17th and 18th. The lineup includes:
- Racines x Château de la Tour x Snowden Vineyards at Marea
- Domaine des Comtes Lafon x Château Lafite Rothschild x Champagne Krug at Melisse (sold out)
- Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux x Château Cheval Blanc at Kato (sold out)
- Domaine Chavy-Chouet x Domaine Michel Lafarge – Co-hosted by Rhude at RVR
- Champagne Billecart-Salmon x Domaine Fourrier at Verse (sold out)
- Domaine Bernard Bonin x Château Lafleur at Dunsmoor (sold out)
- Emidio Pepe x Harlan Estate at Felix
- Domaine Amiot-Servelle x Dalla Valle Vineyards at République
These two days will also feature pop-up “listening events” throughout the city, though what those are and where they will be seems to either be a closely guarded secret or simply still in development.
The main event, which, frustratingly, is invitation-only, takes place on March 19th, at Verse, where MC Jermaine “Wolf of Wine” Stone will emcee performances by Problem, Common, Keyon Herold, and Domonique Sanders, while the wine and food flow freely.
The event organizers haven’t exactly made clear how one might get an invitation to this event, and the venue looks small enough that this clearly isn’t a situation where attendees will number in the thousands. Perhaps if you purchase a seat at one of the winemaker dinners a ticket to the event on the 19th will become available to you?
I wish there were some more accessible and broadly public aspects of this event, if only to amplify its impact, but this is only the first time the event has been held in the US, and hopefully it will be successful enough to expand.
Vin et Hip Hop Los Angeles
March 19, 2026
Verse
4212 Lankershim Blvd
Toluca Lake, CA 91602 (map)
Tickets for the winemaker dinners can be purchased here, and will likely sell out within the next week. They run from $850 to $2500. A portion of the proceeds from the event will go to the very worthy Roots Fund charity.
