February is Black History Month, a time to not only pay tribute to the generations of Black Americans who have dealt with and overcome adversities in life and business, but also to honor the Black professionals who are transforming our culture, political landscape, and economic future today.
At the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, we’re toasting the Black professionals forging a new path in the wine industry and creating a more delicious and inclusive future for all of us.
Maiah Johnson Dunn, Wine Educator and Entrepreneur
Maiah Johnson Dunn has dedicated her career to wine education and inclusive hospitality.
Dunn fell in love with wine as she was falling in love with her husband, she says. After meeting at a wedding and dating long distance—she was in Boston, he was in Rochester—the pair would meet up in wine country. Both love affairs blossomed, and when she relocated to Rochester, she decided to make her relationship with wine official too.
It was during Blackout Tuesday in 2020 when Dunn posted on Instagram about her experience as a Black woman in wine. The response from wine lovers was immediate, and she was invited to host a wine-pairing dinner to talk about her experiences. The dinner sold out in less than two days, and Dunn’s career took off.
Dunn currently works as beverage education manager at New York Kitchen in Canandaigua, blending the stories of agriculture, food and craft beverages made in New York with innovative classes and events. As the founder of DEI Over Wine, she and co-facilitator Syd Bell serve up ways to incorporate the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the hospitality world.
She is a multi-hyphenate, also writing for wine publications like Decanter Magazine and working with Field Blends: Finger Lakes to help get “underrepresented wine professionals who work in restaurants or sell New York wines to New York wine country,” she says. “I will never forget their faces as they saw and learned new things, tasted beautiful wines, and fell in love with the people in the Finger Lakes.”
Dunn has seen a lot of change in the years since she joined the wine industry, but feels like there still is a lot of work to be done.
“I hope producers throughout the beverage industry worldwide will realize that it’s not enough to passively hope for change,” Dunn says. “Making real waves of change in our industry requires a more active effort than saying ‘my door is open,’ which is a common sentiment in this industry. Real change requires forward-moving, sometimes uncomfortable, often challenging work.”
But when the results of the work are realized, Dunn adds, the benefits will be astronomical.
Dunn Is Inspired By: Cha McCoy. “Her constant hustle and desire to always highlight wines from emerging regions is endlessly impressive to me.” You can taste McCoy’s work for yourself by visiting her Syracuse shop, The Communion.
Wanda Mann, Wine Writer and Influencer
Fifteen years ago, Wine With Wanda was launched as a website and social media platform focused on demystifying wine for consumers and highlighting winemakers and regions Wanda Mann wants folks to know about, but her vision and role in the world of wine has expanded considerably.
Mann is now East Coast Editor at The Somm Journal and Tasting Panel magazines, an ambassador for Star Wine List, a presenter at international festivals like Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and Charleston and a writer for magazines like Food & Wine.
Her father, a professional chef, introduced her to wine when she was 16, and two years spent studying in Spain cemented her lifelong love of wine culture. Through her own work and personal interactions, Mann does her best to advise people who may think they can’t work in wine of the opportunities and paths that are available—while also speaking out about areas that the industry needs to work on.
“Many people are unaware of the many different career paths in wine and that they may already possess some skills that are transferable to the wine world,” she says. “And while sommelier training is increasingly available, there needs to be a more transparent and accessible pipeline to other wine careers, including winemaking marketing, public relations, and events production.”
Mann Is Inspired By: New York City sommeliers Victoria James, Cynthia Cheng and Amy Zhou, who founded Wine Empowered, a non-profit organization which provides tuition-free wine education and mentoring to women and people from other under-represented groups in the industry. Sommelier Yannick Benjamin, who has created opportunities for many underrepresented people to enter the wine world, including those with disabilities, at his restaurant Contento. Wine Enthusiast magazine, which is headquartered in New York, and has assembled an impressively diverse team of writers and tasters.
Michael Brooks, Craft Movement Leader
Michael Brooks is all over the New York craft beverage scene as owner of Brooklyn’s Bed-Vyne West, Bed-Vyne Brew, Bed-Vyne Cocktail, his role as vice president of the Tompkins Avenue Merchants Association and board member of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.
His entire raison d’être is helping people find wines they’ll actually enjoy.
“I’ve been involved in wine retail for over 15 years, and my system organizes wines by taste so customers can better understand their own palate and make better decisions when choosing wine,” Brooks explains. “The best way to grow the wine market is through education. Once a person can describe the type of wines they enjoy, the more enjoyable the experience they will have.”
Brooks sees a lot of reason to be hopeful about the future.
“I have seen a lot of change in the wine industry,” Brooks says. “It has really become more diverse and more accessible to people of color. You see lots of wine festivals now that cater to multi racial demographics, and I believe overall this industry has become more inclusive. I would like to see more Black-owned wine or brands based in New York though.”
Brooks Is Inspired By: “I really like the branding of Wölffer Estate,” Brooks says. “They do a good job of making rosé very accessible and inclusive to multiple demographics.”
Jacqueline Ferrari Heavens, Co-Owner of Quartz Rock Vineyard Winery
Jacqueline Ferrari Heavens’ route to co-owning Quartz Rock Vineyard with her husband Dan Heavens in Marlboro was circuitous.
“I am a CPA [certified public accountant],” Heavens says. “Prior to buying the winery I was the CFO [chief financial officer] of a nonprofit in New York City.”
She still wears her finance hat at the winery, running accounting, payroll, marketing and operations management. (Her husband makes the wine and cider). But Heavens also runs the tasting room and is the direct customer contact. She brings her background working as a server and bartender through high school, college and grad school to bear there, Heavens explains.
The pair bought their farm and winery in January 2020, and while Heavens says she has seen a lot of change since then, she adds that she doesn’t have a “normal” pre-COVID time to compare it to.
“I am relatively new to working in the wine world, but I remember even as a customer feeling out of place and often being the only person who looked like me in any tasting room, on either side of the bar,” she says. “When I talk to guests at our winery now, many are surprised—or even shocked—when I say I am the owner. They’ve never been to a vineyard where the owner looked like me. I think that shows that we still have a long way to go in terms of people’s perceptions.”
Heavens Is Inspired By: “The established wineries and the distillery in town who were so welcoming to us,” she says. “They treated us as colleagues instead of competitors, for which I am so grateful.”
Pascal Lewis, Wine Shop Owner
When Pascal Lewis opened up the artisanal wine shop, the Harlem Wine Gallery, with his wife Daneen Steele, the goal was simple: offer a great wine store in their own neighborhood that they themselves would like to shop in.
They soon became passionate about showcasing vintners of color.
“We were introduced to the African American Vintners Association [AAVA] early on in our journey, and as they are instrumental in supporting existing and future winemakers of color, we carry all of AAVA’s wines in the shop,” Lewis says.
Lewis sees his work so far as really just chipping away at the vexing problem of diversity in the wine industry, despite recent gains.
“When I attend a distributor tasting or industry event, I have noticed more recently that I am not the only Black person in the room,” Lewis says. “But still, sadly, there is only a handful of us. We need to continue to be more intentionally inclusive when shopping or supporting small businesses and restaurants that highlight minority wine brands and winemakers, sommeliers, and people in general of color involved in the wine industry. I know we can do better.”
Lewis Is Inspired By: The winemakers carried in the Harlem Wine Group and Phil Long, president of the AAVA.
The New York Wine & Grape Foundation is making an effort to embrace and actively encourage diversity, and has created a subcommittee tasked with doing just that.
“Our goals fall into five key areas,” says Kwaw Amos, founder of Gotham Winery, who sits on the board. “We are creating a statement of our beliefs as a foundation on the importance of diversity, creating training programs that can be used by member wineries, focusing on internships, forming a coalition of wineries that believe in diverse voices in the wine industry, and auditing foundation programs for areas where we can make sure diversity is a factor.”
The road to holistic inclusion is long, but members of the industry and consumers can all make an impact through employment and partnership decisions, and simply spending dollars in places that support diversity initiatives. Join us in celebrating by supporting their businesses, and sipping their wines!
