Temple University<\/a> graduate, said she wanted to bring that experience to Philadelphia, while also spotlighting Black-owned wine and spirits makers.<\/p>\nBlack ownership remains rare in the wine business<\/p>\n
As of 2020, fewer than 1% of American winemakers and winery owners were Black, according to the Association of African American Vintners.<\/p>\n
Some of that is due to challenges faced by many Black-owned businesses, Blount said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of bureaucracy, a lack of resources and access to capital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But it also reflects a less tangible barrier, related to perceptions of the wine industry and inclusivity, she said.<\/p>\n
People want to experience wine \u201cin a way that is approachable,\u201d Blount said. \u201cIf it\u2019s all historically been one way, there has been a bit more of a challenge in trying to get people interested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s event, however, had an eager audience. Many dressed up in purple, gold, and green in keeping with the event\u2019s Mardi Gras theme, \u201cFrom Bourbon Street to Broad Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed a weekend out,\u201d said Shavonne Carter, who attended with her friend April Howard. The Brookhaven residents were enjoying tasting the variety of wines and shopping. Carter bought perfume, while Howard bought a craft syrup for cocktails.<\/p>\n
While the friends said they had gone to other festivals featuring Black-owned businesses, Saturday\u2019s was on \u201ca larger scale,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a work of love,\u201d Howard said of the vendors. \u201cThese are regular people. This is their dream, and it\u2019s nice to be able to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charles and Lakisha Honesty, who live in Washington, D.C., said they bought tickets to the event after seeing an Instagram post.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not wine-every-day people,\u201d Charles Honesty said, but they were drawn by the promise of a fun event. The couple were enjoying samples from Hedon State Wines, a business also from Washington, D.C., that had a booth set up.<\/p>\n
Michael Goode, Hedon State\u2019s managing partner, said he started getting interested in wine after going out to eat and feeling intimidated by a restaurant wine list.<\/p>\n
He started going to wine school after work, where he was \u201cthe only brown person in the room,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Blount hopes the festival will expand to different cities and eventually \u201cprovide some space for education and resources for people who want to get into the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a \u201clack of knowledge\u201d around what it takes to start a winery, Wilson said, including navigating the liquor laws in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s doable, said Wilson, who specializes in wines with unconventional flavors \u2014 like blackberry and mango green tea. \u201cI would come up with these crazy concepts and ideas, and my family was like, \u2018You should start a business around that,\u2019\u201d she said. On Saturday, attendees were lining up to try her new sangrias, including a strawberry watermelon version.<\/p>\n
Wilson, whose business sources fruit from New Jersey and grapes from California, said she often encounters people who don\u2019t think they like wine, but as she introduces them to \u201cmore fruity flavors, everybody\u2019s palates usually open.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes more Black winemakers will open their minds to the possibilities of joining the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have the ambition to come behind it, we\u2019ll get you there,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Four years ago, Keyanna Wilson\u2019s family opened a winery in Hatboro to develop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,118963],"class_list":["post-285483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly-black-winemakers-spirits-fest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}