In the wine world, Krista Scruggs has been viewed for years as an up-and-coming star.
Wine Enthusiast named the Isle la Motte vintner one of “40 Under 40 Tastemakers” in 2018. The next year, Bon Appetit called Scruggs, owner of ZAFA Wines, the “hottest name in natural wine.” In 2020, Fast Company included her on its “Most Creative People in Business” list, and NBC’s “Today Show” chronicled how a self-described “black, queer woman” was making it in Vermont agriculture.
But the most recent press Scruggs has received — an essay she wrote for Food and Wine — now features a disclaimer at the start: “Since the publication of this story, allegations of sexual harassment at ZAFA Wines have come to light, as ZAFA Wines has acknowledged on their Instagram page.”
The note alludes to a wave of accusations Scruggs has faced on social media over the past week and a half alleging multiple acts of sexual misconduct, including verbal harassment, groping and sexual coercion. Scruggs herself addressed the charges in an Instagram video, denying that she committed any wrongdoing. At the same time, she apologized to “any individual who I have harmed” and said she had been “inconsiderate and thoughtless.”
The accusations have cost ZAFA Wines a partnership with Shacksbury Cider. Until the pandemic, the two businesses operated a joint venture, called CO Cellars, out of the Soda Plant in Burlington. According to Shacksbury president Colin Davis, his business has severed ties with ZAFA as a result of the accusations, and ZAFA intends to take over the Soda Plant lease.
Scruggs has also lost a key distribution deal — at least for the time being. Jenny & François Selections, which distributed ZAFA Wines in New York State, wrote on its website that it was “deeply concerned by the recent allegations towards Krista Scruggs” and had suspended its relationship with the company pending internal and external investigations, as Wine Searcher reported this week.
“I take the allegations seriously and felt it was important to say something,” Jenny & François president Jenny Lefcourt told VTDigger, calling herself “heartbroken” over the situation.
Other organizations are waiting to learn more.
The Vermont Land Trust, which leased 57 acres of Isle la Motte farmland to Scruggs last summer and has since provided her a bridge loan, continues to do business with Scruggs, according to president and CEO Nick Richardson. He said the allegations of sexual misconduct “really took us by surprise” and that the organization was seeking additional information.
“As a principle, we believe victims at the Vermont Land Trust, so we’re taking it very seriously,” Richardson said.
Reached through her attorney, Scruggs declined to be interviewed. Instead, she provided VTDigger a written version of the statement she read in the Instagram video.
Red ‘flag’
ZAFA Wines and its owner have faced a number of legal issues in recent months.
Last fall, the state Department of Financial Regulation found that the business had been soliciting investors without proper liquor licenses and ordered it to stop. The Department of Liquor and Lottery then ordered it to cease manufacturing, selling and distributing alcoholic beverages until it received those licenses.
Deputy Liquor and Lottery Commissioner Gary Kessler told Seven Days that, until this year, neither ZAFA nor Scruggs had ever been properly licensed in Vermont.
During a March 18 hearing of the Vermont Board of Liquor and Lottery addressing ZAFA Wine’s licensing issues, Assistant Attorney General Jacob Humbert said the state wanted to “flag” ZAFA’s prior conduct in manufacturing, selling and exporting wine without a license; allegations that Scruggs committed credit card fraud; and the financial regulation department’s pending investigation of alleged securities violations.
The state did not take a position on whether ZAFA Wines should be awarded manufacturing and distribution licenses. The board proceeded to grant them on March 25, but with an unusual and cryptic condition: that ZAFA would have to notify the liquor and lottery commissioner if it was “charged with additional criminal and / or civil violation(s) (beyond those served on or about March 10, 2021).”
It did not specify what those charges were.
‘The Thing Happening in VT’
On March 27, an Instagram account called “The Thing Happening in VT” began posting stories from unnamed women who said they had experienced inappropriate sexual behavior by Scruggs.
The account was hosted by a group of women connected with Vermont’s wine scene: Deirdre Heekin, Willa Deeley, Anna Travers, Camila Carrillo and Olivia Stoehr. In a joint statement Deeley provided to VTDigger, the women said, “Krista Scruggs of ZAFA Wines has been inflicting sexual, emotional, psychological, and financial abuse for far too long.”
They said they chose to create the Instagram account days after the liquor and lottery board granted licenses to ZAFA Wines because they felt the various allegations against Scruggs had not been taken seriously. Her reputation in Vermont’s wine community for sexual misconduct also needed to be addressed, they said.
“The account has been an organic extension of the people who voiced concerns, stories, and trauma,” the statement read. “We felt a container was needed for an outpouring of feeling, and that this was the most healing way to manage a difficult situation.”
The Instagram account was deleted after the creators faced online harassment.
In her written statement to VTDigger, Scruggs said, “The allegations of sexual harassment are deeply upsetting. I want to be clear that I have never sexually assaulted or sexually harassed anyone.” ZAFA’s Instagram account also shared a post directing anyone with sexual harassment complaints to contact the company’s human resources department.
“As a Black woman, I keenly understand the impact that systemic racism and sexism can have on people’s lives and the harm that words and acts of aggression — small and large — can have,” she continued. “I know only too well how it feels to be treated with disrespect, and I certainly don’t want to treat others that way.”
“I want to apologize to any individual who I have harmed,” Scruggs said. “Looking back, I can see that at times I was inconsiderate and thoughtless in my personal interactions with some people. And for that I am deeply sorry.”
Most notable among the women who created the Instagram account is Heekin, the winemaker behind the La Garagista winery, located in Barnard. Scruggs got her start in Vermont winemaking at La Garagista, under Heekin’s leadership, in 2017. Previously, Scruggs had picked up wine-making experience in California.
In a statement provided to VTDigger, Heekin said she had tried to use her privilege as a white woman to support young people who hoped to work in the food, wine and agriculture industries. She said she had welcomed Scruggs into her business and her home, “until it became clear her transgressions were negatively impacting me, my business and my employees.”
“I am well aware that the discussion happening now about Krista’s behavior looks like an issue of race, while it is really about issues happening in the workplace. These kinds of issues have long plagued the wine and food industry, and while this is all painful for our community, it is a great opportunity to talk [about] these issues of behavior regardless of identity,” Heekin said in the statement.
“My hope is that the lessons we learn from this difficult experience can be channeled into positive action against all kinds of harassment and abuse that can set an example not only for our community here in Vermont, but for workplaces throughout the beverage and food industry as a whole, and beyond,” she said.
‘I felt incredibly unsafe’
The stories posted anonymously to the Instagram account included a variety of allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior attributed to Scruggs, much of it involving the imbibing of wine. VTDigger was not able to independently corroborate many of the allegations.
Travers, who had previously worked for Scruggs, said she witnessed one of the alleged incidents described on the Instagram account. In that post, an unnamed person wrote that Scruggs had approached her one night at a tasting room and “ripped open” her button-down shirt, exposing her bra and torso.
“Krista then groped my breasts and said something to the effect of: I should flaunt what I have, show them off,” the person wrote. “My friends nervously laughed and looked away. I tried not to take it too seriously but I couldn’t shake the bad feeling.”
According to Travers, “I was standing literally next to that woman when that happened. I would never have done that, and I wouldn’t have thought that was necessarily like the thing to do in public.”
Two women of color who accused Scruggs of inappropriate behavior on the Instagram account described their experiences in interviews with VTDigger on the condition that they not be identified.
The first alleged that Scruggs had plied her with alcohol at a beer festival in July 2019 and pressured her into making out, though the woman had repeatedly rejected her advances. She said she had been hesitant to speak out against Scruggs because she feared doing so would only make it harder for women and people of color to break into the field.
“I don’t want to be seen as taking down one of my own or one of the few visible and women of color in the alcohol industry,” the woman told VTDigger.
The second woman of color who shared her story on Instagram said that she became involved with Scruggs in California in 2013. When Scruggs learned that she was seeing other people, the woman said, Scruggs drunkenly told the woman’s boss that she was a “slut” at the bar where the woman worked, thereby jeopardizing her employment — and later engaged in other harassing behavior.
“It was incredibly uncomfortable. I felt incredibly unsafe,” the woman told VTDigger. “And it was incredibly stressful because I felt like she wouldn’t leave me alone.”
‘Like people weren’t going to believe us’
Carrillo, one of the women who created the Instagram account, told VTDigger in an interview that the stories it shared mirror experiences she also had with Scruggs.
Carrillo, who works at La Garagista winery, said she met Scruggs at the end of 2016. After going to dinner and drinks with friends, Scruggs convinced her to spend the night at her place, Carrillo said. When Scruggs’ roommate went to bed, she offered Carillo bourbon.
“Then later, we made our way into her bedroom, where I was starting to feel really uncomfortable,” Carrillo said. “I felt kind of cornered. … I was drunk and I didn’t know how to, like, advocate for myself, but I also felt bad saying no.”
Carrillo said she had told Scruggs earlier in the night that she was bisexual.
“I never said no. There was a certain point where I kind of told her that I wasn’t comfortable or that I even made the excuse that I was too tired,” Carrillo said. “She did things to me and I did not do things to her.”
The two remained in touch over the ensuing months, Carrillo said, and Scruggs continued to push her boundaries. During a two-week trip to California with Scruggs in July 2017, Carrillo suffered panic attacks daily, she said.
“What ended up happening was that like, you know, we would get drunk, she would get mad and then she would sexually abuse me,” Carrillo said.
The experience, she said, left her feeling suicidal. Months later, after more tumultuous moments in their relationship, Carrillo ended it and blocked Scruggs out of her life.
Carrillo said she saw a pattern between her experiences and those being shared on the Instagram account. Though Carrillo did not share her story on “The Thing Happening in VT,” she posted a statement to her personal Instagram account about her experience with Scruggs.
“I think what really drew people to Krista was the fact that she is a queer, Black woman in Vermont, of all places, making wine. And making wine with hybrid, doing co-ferments between apples and grapes so everything about her was really unusual and unique and new,” Carrillo said. “She has so much charisma and she’s so funny. It’s just very, very easy for her to win people over.”
Carrillo said she felt “sick to her stomach” when she saw Scruggs’ video addressing the allegations against her.
“It made me feel defeated. It made me feel silent,” Carrillo said. “It made me feel like people weren’t going to believe us.”
Paul Heintz contributed reporting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the nature of the Department of Financial Regulation’s order and details of ZAFA’s Soda Plant operations.
