Step into a local Total Wine or Whole Foods store and you may be surprised to find George Mason among the wine bottles on the shelves. Sporting a colonial hat with a modern pair of shades, he’s the face of George Mason University’s private wine label.
Geo. Mason Wines is more than a classy addition to dinner. It’s also been generating scholarship funding for Mason students since 2018.
Here are 10 facts about its history:
1. It started with an alum…
Terri Cofer Beirne, BA Government and Politics ’88, knows a lot about wine. The chair of the George Mason University Foundation Board of Trustees is a lawyer for the California wine industry and serves as Eastern Counsel for Wine Institute. When Foundation members were looking for additional revenue streams for student scholarships, she was inspired to create a Mason-branded beverage. So, she pulled together a group of volunteers from the Board of Trustees, the Board of Visitors, faculty and staff to get started.
2. …with a little help from a former Mason soccer coach.
Manu Gaiarin, owner of Siema Wines and a former assistant coach for Mason’s men’s soccer team, partnered with the university as the supplier.
“I was happy to get involved due to my legacy to Mason,” said Gaiarin, who said he coached at Mason for six years in the 1990s and has a son who currently attends Mason. “We carefully selected the wine to be an exceptional good value for the price point, and we’re very proud that we had Mason students help us develop the final package.”
3. It’s student-centered.
“The best part of the whole process is that $3.50 from the sale of every bottle goes to student scholarships,” Beirne said.
Since 2018, Geo. Mason Wines has sold about 700 cases of wine and contributed approximately $29,000 to student scholarships.
And scholarships aren’t the only ways students have benefited.
4. It inspired some healthy competition.
After the name Geo. Mason was selected, a competition was held among teams of Mason art students to design the label, Beirne said.
“That was really fun to see how creative and clever these students were with their ideas,” she said, adding that some designs were contemporary and funky, while others were graceful and natural. “We settled on one hand drawn by a student with George in sunglasses, just to make him contemporary and reveal him as something different than expected.”
A second student group competed with their peers to help with the marketing plan. In addition to gaining experiential learning through the project, students from the design and marketing groups whose work was selected each received a $250 cash prize, Beirne said.
5. What’s in a name?
Papers in colonial times often abbreviated names to save on ink, and “Geo.” hearkens back to this tradition. It also served as a way to avoid legal challenges that could have arisen with intellectual property protections of “George Mason” or “GMU,” Beirne said.
6. Vino for all.
Unlike other universities with branded beverages priced upwards of $50, the Mason team wanted their brand to be high quality, but accessible. Mason’s two wines come in at about $20 a bottle.
7. From coast to coast.
The wine is sourced from California, despite a bubbling Virginia wine industry. Because Virginia wineries sell most of their wines in their tasting rooms, the team decided to go out-of-state to find a winery with the volume and experience of making private label brands, Beirne said.
8. It was years in the making.
“It took a good three years from throwing ideas around to actually getting wine in a bottle,” Beirne said. “It was a labor of love from a lot of people.”
The team agrees that the results were worth it, and they’re proud that the project is a way to give back.
9. What’s next for Geo. Mason?
“In the near future, we’re trying to increase the number of wines under the Geo. Mason brand,” Gaiarin said, adding that they currently have a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.
10. Where and why to find George.
“It’s by students, to help students.” Beirne said. “If you’re enjoying wine anyway, you might as well do something that supports Mason students.”
Visit Siema Wines's website for a list of retailers, or to have the wine direct-shipped to your home.