Every morning, Ifeoma C. Onyia walks out to her vineyard and checks on her vines the way most people check on family. She asks what they need. She watches how they rest. For the Nigerian-born founder of Clyopatra Winery Maryland, that daily ritual is about far more than farming. It is about proving, vine by vine, that she belongs in an industry that has rarely made space for people who look like her.
Born in Nigeria and raised in London before establishing roots in the DC region, Onyia became the first African immigrant to open a winery in the United States. The odds she was working against were not abstract. Black wine producers comprise less than one percent of the roughly 11,000 such businesses in the nation, according to the Association of African American Vintners. Onyia knew those numbers when she started. She moved forward anyway.
From Palm Wine to Prince George’s County
Long before Onyia ever walked a California vineyard or sipped her way through Tuscany, her love for fermented fruit started somewhere far more personal. She dreamed of becoming a wine producer since childhood, when she first sampled palm wine from the milky-white sap of certain palm trees in Nigeria. Her father owned farmland in Udi, in Enugu State, and a young Ifeoma used to gaze down the slopes and wonder why he had never planted a vineyard there.
Her father was a wine collector and connoisseur who encouraged her curiosity. She carried that curiosity through England, through years of traveling Italy and France, and through the kind of grief that changes what you think your life is for. Between 2012 and 2020, she lost two brothers. One of them, Oby, had planned to travel with her to Italy to study viticulture together. His death turned a shared plan into a personal mission. “I lost my brother Oby before we could travel to Italy to tour a vineyard operation and train together,” she told The Business Monthly in 2023. “So it’s my quest now. I have to do this for him.”
The Pandemic Planted the Seeds
During COVID-19, Onyia planted grapevines in her backyard and began studying the science behind what Maryland’s soil could produce. She hired Daniel Larason, a Maryland viticultural expert, as a consultant. The five varieties planted at the vineyard include Regent, SK-77, Chardonell, Chambourcin, and Noiret, which Larason described as “a little off the beaten path, but they make great wine.”
She also collaborated with researchers at the University of Maryland and sourced grapes from Eastern Shore farmers while her own vines matured. Her children’s friends became her first taste testers. By October 2023, the tasting room at 24 C Street in Laurel’s arts district was open, stocked with 18 wines and timed deliberately to coincide with Nigerian Independence Day on October 1. Her flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, called “The Mayor,” was named in honor of her late father, delivering structured tannins, layered dark fruit, and a confident finish that reflects its namesake’s strength.
For more on Nigerian entrepreneurs building businesses across the DMV, read about African entrepreneurs reshaping the DMV economy.
Clyopatra Winery Maryland Is Getting Much Bigger
On February 6, 2026, Onyia broke ground on the Clyopatra Winery and Vineyard Village Resort, situated on approximately 41 acres at the intersection of Jupiter and Duckettown Roads in south Laurel. The project represents a multi-million-dollar private investment advancing entirely through private capital.
Phase one of the resort includes vineyard planting, agricultural infrastructure, a second tasting room, access road construction, and supporting site work. Onyia is also planning a 20-bedroom boutique hotel, a golf range, and a vegetable garden where she will offer internships and apprenticeships to teach young people how to get into agriculture. The first banquet hall, with capacity for 400 guests, is expected to be operational by fall 2026.
“The village resort now makes us the largest Black-owned winery on the East Coast,” Onyia said after the groundbreaking. “It means that people like me can feel so happy to come over and learn.”
PG County Is Exactly Where This Belongs
Onyia’s vineyard is in Prince George’s County, where there is a rich Black American culture and a growing, influential African immigrant population that makes the area as multifaceted as the wine she produces. That is not a coincidence. The county’s African diaspora communities have long anchored their identities through institutions, from churches and cultural associations to professional networks and restaurants. A winery rooted in Nigerian heritage fits that tradition with room to grow.
The Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation stood alongside Onyia at the groundbreaking ceremony, joined by local elected officials and community stakeholders. For a business that started with one woman planting vines during a pandemic, that kind of institutional recognition carries real weight.
You can explore more about how the African community in PG County is building lasting economic power in African immigrants in Prince George’s County: building community and wealth. The Washington Post’s detailed profile of Onyia and Black-owned wineries diversifying Maryland’s wine industry provides important context on the barriers these pioneers still face.
What This Means for the African Diaspora
Onyia has been direct about what she believes her winery represents for future generations. “When it comes to Black owners, we are the pioneers,” she said. “Not only do we have wineries, but we produce really great quality wines.” Maryland Matters
She has spoken openly about the structural disadvantages that keep Black winemakers out of the industry. Maryland’s 80 wine producers account for $1.8 billion in annual wages and nearly $70 million a year in tourist spending, according to the National Association of American Wineries. The majority of individual wineries are family heirlooms, with land, expertise, and capital passed down through generations, advantages that have often not been available to Black winemakers.
Recognition Beyond the Tasting Room
The honors Onyia has received reflect how much broader her impact has become. She received the United States President’s Lifetime Achievement Award from President Joseph R. Biden Jr., alongside a Keeper of Heritage Award presented by Essence Magazine’s Susan Taylor. She has also received the Community Leadership and Visionary Award at the DMV Community Awards and Fashion Show.
These are not ceremonial gestures. They reflect a community that has taken notice of what she is building, and what it means to see an Igbo woman from Udi plant roots in PG County soil and refuse to shrink.
For a broader look at how Black-owned businesses in the DMV are driving community wealth, read Black-owned restaurants and businesses in the DMV making history. And the Prince George’s County EDC’s official press release on the groundbreaking at pgcedc.com documents the full scope of what is coming.
“Dream big,” Onyia has said more than once in interviews. “There’s no magic in small dreams.”
Somewhere in west Laurel, a Nigerian woman from Udi is checking on her vines. Her father told her she would do this one day. He was right. And the rest of the African diaspora in the DMV is watching her do it in real time.
Visit clyopatrawineryvineyard.com for tasting room hours, upcoming events, and wine club membership.