Black Palates & Great Wines AND VIDEO TOO

So, I figured that I would do a GoFundMe, because why not? It's actually probably the quickest way to easily raise funds for something and right now they have this Black Joy initiative happening. There is also the other adage that pride comes before a fall, which translates to most people not having the humility to ask for help at all; get over that, because all of the people you idolize as self-made actually asked for help, e.g. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and others. And let me start by telling you about us and why we are here.

 

Ikavina Wine and Spirits, LLC is a small Black- and veteran-owned federally licensed importer and distributor [also with its own brand] focused on bringing great wines at very affordable prices focused on the African American demographic, which is the most ignored, neglected and under-served demographic to the wine industry in the U.S. Most distributors never approach Black-owned restaurants and retailers at all, or when they do, they bring entry-level plonk, most of which they have no great respect for. Trust me, I have witnessed this for years and have the receipts. For the past twelve years the owner (me), Zachary Marcus Cesare Harris -- yes, my momma named me that and the name garners some great love, especially in Italy with my second middle name being Cesare -- has been building a ton of relationships with producers from Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Lebanon, France and the list goes on and on.

BOWSFest 2019

 

You might have seen us at BOWSFest 2019 or BOWSFEST 2021 and two of our wines, Bakhita and Aether, won Bronze at Texsom International Wine Awards 2021 (I thought that the should have received silver, but that is another conversation). Note: we only submitted three wines. Anyway, May is going to be that crazy month, and while are slowly working on some interesting deals, it's that getting over the hump piece. And while I hesitate, I had to look around to look at others who used the platform and actually did good thing; Shellie Ann Kerns actually raised a little more than 81K on a sustainable farm when she only asked for 5K, which is hella inspiring. And then I went back to see my giving history and there was when I gave $25 to someone who was looking to raise 1K to do a community Thanksgiving dinner in Philly in 2013.

 

So, let me tell you a little more about the company, and some of the things that we do. While we are a business, we focus on smaller producer making great wines, and in that, sometimes it is just helping someone get their foot finally in the door. It could be a woman-owned producer [featuring a woman-owned winemaker] who is trying to get their products recognized over here -- I have one from the Dao and one from the Douro -- or someone else who is looking for the right partner to deal with; I've got one guy in Toscana who sought me out after a tasting and several other producers also interested after this last trade trip to Italy. We also don't try to take advantage of people on pricing, as most of our wines are between $12 and $20; we do have a $60 Taurasi, but once you google Taurasi, you will understand what the wine is and why the price is what it is.

 

Now, one key thing about us is that we have a central focus of helping others, which means giving back. I always say to folks, "help me get where I need to go, so I can help you later on." As we just got another shipment of wine in, my best friend drove a couple bottles down to someone in Virginia, which now has us involved in trying to help raise funds for Black participation in the equestrian world; this means doing some long term stuff. I just donated [and poured] wine for a fundraiser for a state senate candidate, will be donating wine for a Women of Diversity Business event, and the next thing is to work with a minority STEM program.

 

And so here we are, what the funds will be raised for. Some of it will go to customs and duties for what we just brought in (we don't mind giving out/away some wine; hell, we will easily part with 600 bottles or more). But the special part is that we want to put a couple tastings together that bring great wine and Black people together... AND FILM IT! What I can't do is tell you what kinds of wine [lest someone else with more money try to beat me to the punch], but I can tell you that folks have been sleeping on it. And this won't be the only one that we do, because we have a lot of things geared towards exposing people to wines that they haven't been exposed to before.

 

If you want to see some of the stuff that we have done before, you can easily go here and here. We already have a couple places in Philly, and we have an idea of where we would shoot in Baltimore but are also looking for some place in D.C. You can also check us out at @ikavinawine on IG to see more about us, our wines and people's reactions.

 

And I decided to re-release the book that I wrote for the label, and also do a video project of that. You can download and read the book as well.

Oh, these are also the latest wines that we brought in