Spread love it’s the Brooklyn way! A Brooklyn, New York, entrepreneur has decided to spread love by launching her own black-owned champagne label, according to the Daily News.
Marvina Robinson, who is already set to launch a champagne bar later this year, was inspired to create Stuyvesant Champagne, which she has named after the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood where she grew up. People can start purchasing Stuyvesant Champagne on the company’s website and in person at several shops in Brooklyn, including Happy Cork, a black-owned liquor shop on Buffalo Avenue in Crown Heights. Robinson hosted a complimentary tasting there last week.
Robinson, who says she has a love affair with sparkling wine, started enjoying it while she was still in college. She and her group of girlfriends would split a bottle from a Fulton Street liquor store every Friday night. “I always loved bubbly, it always made me feel good whether I was up or down or if I just needed something to sip on,” she tells the Daily News. “It’s the perfect balance.”
The Brooklyn woman, who is turning her passion for bubbly into a trailblazing business, is now one of the only black entrepreneurs in the city to launch her own line of champagne.
In planning to develop her own champagne brand, the 43-year-old was not at all satisfied with the different brands on the market, so she took a trip to France to concoct her own flavor. “I wanted the champagne to have some meaning, some depth to it,” she said. “So I went to France to meet different people, visit different vineyards and grape owners.”
When Robinson came back to New York earlier this year, she had several different cuvées, a French term for batches of wine, and she invited a dozen friends to a blind tasting at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The winners ended up being a salmon-colored Brut Rosé and a golden-colored Grande Réserve.
“The Grande Réserve is actually my favorite,” Robinson stated. “They’re like kids, you’re not supposed to have favorites, but that’s my favorite. It’s 60% Pinot Noir, 22% Pinot Meunier, and 20% Chardonnay grape.”
You can check her out when she opens her upcoming Bedford-Stuyvesant bar, Coupette NYC. “I’m not finished. I still have a long way to go. I’m still building, still paving the way,” Robinson said.