After walking around their Harlem neighborhood and realizing there wasn’t a place to buy good wine, Pascal and Daneen Lewis came up with a bold plan: to open their own wine shop.
“We’ve lived in the neighborhood for close to 30 years and we never really found a place that we liked buying wine in. We would travel downtown,” Daneen, co-owner of Harlem Wine Gallery, told NowThis News. “Being very active in our community, we were like, ‘Wait, why are we leaving our neighborhood to go buy wine that we want to drink? We should have a shop!’”
Pascal and Daneen sprung into action shortly after that. The couple did not have prior experience in the wine world, but they took classes and attended the Wine Spirits Education Trust to learn everything they could about the industry.
“We kind of naively just jumped into it,” Daneen said. “And now, seven years later, here we are, and we love every second of it.”
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Harlem Wine Gallery is so much more than a wine shop. Pascal and Daneen want to engage with the community. According to Sprudge, the wine shop includes a large space in the back, which is often used for tastings and other events. Its calendar shows the gallery has offered events that merge wine with music and culture — and many of those events were free.
“Most people are intimidated [buying wine],” Pascal, co-owner of Harlem Wine Gallery, told NowThis News. “This space gave us an opportunity to have an educational space that would allow us to educate our community members [about wine and wine making].”
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What sets Harlem Wine Gallery apart is its unique variety. The establishment boasts an impressive collection of wines from Black-owned brands and created by Black winemakers, arguably the largest in New York City. They also carry wines made by women. According to the website, natural wines and New York State wines comprise a significant portion of their offerings.
Pascal observed a notable lack of representation in the industry. He believes his retail space could address this shortcoming by prominently featuring these wines. He emphasizes the need for support towards Black brands and Black winemakers, and his shop aims to contribute to this important uplift.
Looking ahead, the Lewises plan to engage with their community, working together with other small businesses in Harlem and nearby locales. They are motivated to broaden people’s understanding that cultivating wine grapes is a part of agriculture.
Daneen added that there’s a lot more knowledge to gain and many more milestones to achieve.
“It’s just a neverending journey of learning about wine,” she said.
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