New bottle shop in Shaw showcases wine producers of color
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The Urban Grape founders Hadley and TJ Douglas. Photo courtesy of The Urban Grape
The Urban Grape, a dynamic wine and spirits store out of Boston that showcases bottles from producers of color, just opened in Shaw.
Why it matters: D.C. has some cool independently owned wine shops, but this is the first Black-owned store whose mission is to highlight minority producers.
Catch up quick: Husband-and-wife owners TJ and Hadley Douglas opened the original Urban Grape a decade ago in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.
- They sought out producers and made relationships with minority and small family winemakers, building what's now the Drink Progressively Group, the largest certified Black-owned beverage retailer in the U.S. (and a 2023 Wine Enthusiast "best wine shop" to boot).
Zoom in: The D.C. shop, located near the Convention Center, is housed in an old bank with a clean, bright look and fun tunes (cue "TJ's Birthday Mix"). It's organized by a signature "progressive scale" that's guided by a wine's weight and mouthfeel — e.g. light to heavy whites and reds — versus regions.
- The shelves, which will hold around 800 wines as well as sakes and spirits, are priced in a way that's easy to navigate: lowest on the bottom, highest at the top. "We're kid- and dog-friendly and the shorter ones tend to break things," TJ tells Axios.
- A diverse lineup of activities includes free tastings every Thursday, a wine club, winemaker sessions, and event spaces. There's also a padlocked wine room for those $1,000-plus bottles.
Between the lines: The couple chose D.C. for their first expansion because of its unique alcohol laws, which allow businesses to source directly from producers — even minuscule ones — versus going through a state distributor like in Virginia and Maryland that focuses on the big guys.
- That means they can purchase from — and also boost the profile of — small, up-and-coming winemakers like Justin Michelle Ward Trabue, a D.C. native-turned-owner of California's "micro-winery," Ward Four Wines.
What's next: The Douglas' launched with Boston University in 2020 a wine studies program for students of color that they plan to replicate next year with Howard University. The certification course for students of color 21 and over includes training with distributors, restaurants, and wineries.
- "I got tired of being the only person of color in my company," TJ tells Axios of the program. "We didn't want to use the excuse, 'Well we just don't have any applicants.' What we needed to do was create a pipeline of wine-interested people of color and there's no better place than Howard."
Details: The Urban Grape is open daily at 1301 Ninth St., NW (delivery coming soon).