Wichita’s first urban winery has closed, but the owner is hopeful for its future

After a few extremely tough years, Jennifer McDonald has closed her Jenny Dawn Cellars.

“This isn’t the end of our story,” she said. “It’s just a pause and a pivot.”

In 2016, McDonald opened her wine brand. She then opened what she called Wichita’s first urban winery at Union Station downtown in late 2019, “which was a really bad time to open because then four months later the pandemic hit.”

The problems kept coming, including supply-chain issues and staffing shortages.

Then came a December break-in.

McDonald said the man who broke in “ruined our number one best-selling wine, which was 1,600 gallons of Watermelon Crush.”

If she had sold all of it, McDonald said she could have made more than $300,000, but she said insurance only reimbursed her what it cost to make.

“I have been working with them from December 7 to now, and there is nothing they can do to help me at this point,” she said. “Our business has been stressed for quite some time, but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. . . . At some point, you can only do so much.”

What she’s doing now is regrouping with a fundraiser through social media.

On her Facebook page Wednesday, McDonald wrote: “As a Black Female Founder we only receive 1% of the investment capital that is deployed throughout the US. Invest in us today, on International Women’s Day, to help us restart our business and make the wine industry more inclusive.”

She also included a link to support her through a Wefunder campaign.

“Really, my business has been underfunded from the beginning,” McDonald said. “It’s been a hard road from the beginning.”

She thinks with more investment, she could move to a smaller location and be successful.

“We’re able to make award-winning wine. We’re just underfunded and need to reposition ourselves and create a new business model,” McDonald said.

“I’m hopeful.”