For a very long time, Boston has been the home of visionaries who challenge the established order. It should therefore not come as a surprise that three local leaders in the wine sector are at the forefront of making changes. These individuals are TJ and Hadley Douglas, owners of the South End wine shop Urban Grape, and Alicia Towns Franken, executive director of the organisation Wine Unify. They are advocating efforts that are cultivating a more diverse generation of wine professionals, many of whom are already having an influence outside of the state of Massachusetts as a result of these initiatives.
The potential for the Urban Grape Wine Studies Award to expand
TJ and Hadley Douglas, a married couple, launched the Urban Grape Wine Studies Award for Students of Colour in 2020. This is a one-year programme with the goal of providing BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) individuals with premier wine education, mentorship, and paid work experience in the retail, restaurant, and distribution sectors of the wine business. The award programme is designed to provide opportunities to people who have been historically underrepresented in the business. It was established with an endowment that is housed at Boston University’s Metropolitan College. The programme, which is currently in the process of hosting its fourth cohort, continues to expand thanks to the assistance of Urban Grape customers and supporters, in addition to partners including importer-distributor M.S. Walker, restaurant group Row 34, and Jackson Family Wines, which is one of the largest multi-brand wine firms in the country.
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