Hidden Gems: Meet Chrishon Lampley of Love Cork Screw

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chrishon Lampley.

Hi Chrishon, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story starts with a blog. In 2010 I was writing about wine because I loved it and because I didn’t see anyone in the space who looked like me or talked like me. Before that I’d owned an art gallery with a full bar in Chicago and worked in wine and spirits distribution, so I knew the business from both sides of the bar, but I’d never seen a brand that felt like an invitation instead of a test.

In 2013 I stopped writing about other people’s wine and launched my own. Love Cork Screw was built on a simple idea: wine should be fun. The labels are colorful and playful, the names are things people actually say, “Head Over Heels,” “Good Times Good Friends,” “Hard Knock Life”, and nobody has to know a thing about terroir to enjoy a glass. That was the whole thesis, and it worked. We’ve sold over two million bottles and we’re in more than a thousand retail doors across nineteen states, including H-E-B, Meijer, Mariano’s, Kroger, and Total Wine & More.

None of that happened quickly or easily. The three-tier system in this industry is not built for people like me. There were years of chasing distributors, getting told no, getting shelf space and then fighting to keep it. I learned that getting in the door is maybe twenty percent of the job, the other eighty is making sure the bottle actually moves once it’s there.

In 2022 I incorporated everything under LCS Entertainment, and the company has grown into something bigger than one label. The Lampley is our premium wine and home goods line, created in honor of my late father, Lou Lampley, it’s now poured at Vino Volo airport wine bars nationwide and placed at the Obama Presidential Center, and a portion of proceeds goes to research in his name. There’s also Lampley Learning, where I teach other entrepreneurs what I had to learn the hard way; CLINK Festival, which I co-founded to celebrate wine and culture in Chicago; and the Sip & Empower Foundation, our 501(c)(3).

Today I serve as VP of the African American Association of Vintners, I’ve spoken at TEDx, and I’m still the person answering emails at eleven at night. That part doesn’t change.

If there’s a thread through all of it, it’s this: I didn’t wait for permission. I built the table I wanted a seat at, and now I try to leave extra chairs.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth? Not even close. And I say that with love, because every hard part taught me something I couldn’t have learned any other way.

The first real wall was the three-tier system. In this industry you don’t just make wine and sell it, you have to get a distributor to carry you, and distributors carry what they already know sells. I heard no more times than I can count. I’d get a meeting, do the pitch, get the polite “we love the story, but…” and then start over. It took years of persistence to build the network I have now, and I still work those relationships every single week.

Then came the lesson that getting on the shelf isn’t the finish line. A retailer gives you space based on how fast the product moves, and if it sits, you’re out, no matter how good the story is. So a huge part of my job has always been driving people into stores. I’m grateful to the chains that took a chance on us and to the small shops that did the same, but staying on shelf comes down to somebody physically buying the bottle. That pressure never really lets up.

Capital has been its own mountain. Access to funding for a Black woman founder in an industry this old and this capital-intensive is not a level playing field, and I’ve had to be creative, grants, pitch competitions, partnerships, reinvesting revenue instead of raising it.

And then there’s everything you can’t plan for. Losing my father in 2025 changed me and changed the company; The Lampley exists because of him. We’ve had makers go out of business mid-season and had to pause products. We’ve had storms knock out power and pull our staff the week of an event, and had to withdraw entirely. You learn to keep moving without losing the thread.

I’ll be honest, I’ve framed this year internally as a turnaround year. Not everything is up and to the right, and I think founders do each other a disservice pretending otherwise. What I know is that I’ve rebuilt before, and the brand is stronger every time.

The struggle I’d never trade is the one that made me stubborn. Nobody handed me a lane. I built one.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
LCS Entertainment is a multi-brand wine and lifestyle company, and everything under it comes back to the same belief: wine should feel like an invitation, not an exam.

Love Cork Screw is our flagship. It’s approachable, unpretentious wine with labels built around the five senses — bright, colorful, a little irreverent. The names say it best: “Head Over Heels” Riesling, “Good Times Good Friends” Pinot Grigio, “Hard Knock Life” Concord, “We’re Movin’ On Up” Cabernet Sauvignon. You’ll find us at Kroger, H-E-B, Meijer, Mariano’s, Total Wine & More, and at Vino Volo airport wine bars. We also run the Wine Collective, our subscription program, for people who want the wine to just show up.

The Lampley is our premium side, wine, candles, home goods, and apparel, created in honor of my late father, Lou Lampley. The Cabernet is poured at Vino Volo bars nationwide and is placed at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. A portion of proceeds funds research in his name through our “Pour It Forward” campaign. It’s the most personal thing I’ve ever built, and honestly the thing I’m proudest of. Turning grief into something that pours for other people is not a business strategy anyone teaches you.

Beyond the bottles, there’s Lampley Learning, my e-learning platform for entrepreneurs, where I teach the parts of building a consumer brand that nobody tells you about. There’s CLINK Festival, which I co-founded to bring wine, food, and culture together in Chicago. And there’s the Sip & Empower Foundation, our 501(c)(3), because the whole point of getting a seat at the table is bringing people with you.

What sets us apart? Two things. First, we’re a working brand, I’m not a celebrity who licensed my name to a label. I’ve sold over two million bottles, I’ve negotiated with distributors in nineteen states, I hold MBE, WBE, WOSB, HUBZone, and ACDBE certifications, and I serve as VP of the African American Association of Vintners. I know this industry from the inside out.

Second, we’ve never talked down to our customer. The wine world has spent a very long time making people feel stupid, and that’s a business model I have no interest in. Our customer is smart, she just wants a good bottle and a good time.

If your readers take one thing away: buy the bottle where you see it. Retail shelf space is earned every single week, and every purchase at Kroger, Meijer, Mariano’s, Total Wine, or your neighborhood shop is a vote that keeps a Black woman-owned brand on that shelf. You can also shop us directly at lovecorkscrew.com and thelampley.com.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Follow-through. Not vision, not passion, follow-through.

Everybody in this industry has a great idea. What almost nobody has is the willingness to do the unglamorous part a thousand times in a row. The distributor paperwork. The state liquor board submission. The email at eleven at night. Walking into a store to check whether your bottle is facing forward and actually restocked. Calling the buyer back a fourth time when the first three went nowhere. None of that makes a highlight reel, and all of it is the actual business.

I think people mistake momentum for luck. Two million bottles didn’t come from one big break, it came from a very long string of small, boring, completed tasks. The brand looks fun and colorful on the shelf, and that’s on purpose. Behind it is a lot of discipline.

If I had to add a second quality, it’s the ability to keep my ego out of it. I’ve changed packaging, dropped products that weren’t working, and taken hard feedback from buyers who were right. Being precious about your own ideas is expensive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lovecorkscrew.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovecorkscrew/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LCSMusings
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishon-lampley-a4543596/
• Other: https://thelampley.com/

Image Credits
Christian Brown