Bed-Vyne Wine & Spirits
All photos by Curt Sanders for Black-Owned Brooklyn
Looking to cop some spring wines? Look no further than Bed-Vyne Wine & Spirits. Owned by Rotimi Akinnuoye (pictured), Ayo Akinnuoye, Michael Brooks and Peter Medford, the Bed-Stuy shop has been supplying an expertly curated selection of vino since 2011. The four Black men also own two other neighborhood mainstays — craft beer & wine bar Bed-Vyne Brew and cocktail bar Bed-Vyne Cocktail (which has a fifth partner, Damone James) — as part of their forward-thinking plan for self-determination.
“Collectively working together is the only way we’re going to build,” says Rotimi, 49. “If I try to do it alone, it’s probably going to take 20 years. But if I get together with three other guys, we can grow really quickly.”
When Bed-Vyne Wine & Spirits opened in 2011, all the neighborhood’s liquor stores, with one exception, were behind bulletproof plexiglass. “We wanted people to have access to the wine, to touch the bottles and get information about them,” Rotimi says.
“Collectively working together is the only way we’re going to build. If I try to do it alone, it’s probably going to take 20 years. But if I get together with three other guys, we can grow really quickly.”
While Bed-Vyne relocated from its original location last year to a larger, sunnier shop across the street, the open space concept remains. To make browsing easy for novices, the store is organized not by region or varietals, but by taste: Crisp, Bold, Floral, Toast, Sweet White, Sparkling, Fruit, etc. There’s a dedicated section for wines under $15 and under $10. The store also holds tastings three to four times a week.
“We don’t do Hennessy. We don’t do Cîroc,” Rotimi says of his propensity for artisanal and locally distilled wine and spirits over commercial products. “We want people to discover more interesting things.”
Bed-Vyne Wine & Spirits has a particular interest in Black-owned labels, which friendly staffers are happy to point out. Among other brands, the shop carries Seven Sisters, owned by seven Black sisters in South Africa; True Wine Connoisseurs, owned by rapper Sadat X of Brand Nubian and producer Will “Tell” Davis; Maison Noir by African-American winemaker André Mack; and Brown Estate from a Caribbean-American, family-owned vineyard in Napa Valley. Bed-Vyne also stocks its own private label of wines, including vinho verde, shiraz, sparkling rosé, a crisp white, lambrusco and more.
“We’re more than a wine shop,” Rotimi says. “We’re very much about growing our businesses by trying different things.”
