- I really believe that it's a systemic issue.

You know, there aren't fine wine shops in communities where there aren't even grocery stores.

And so, you know, historically a lot of brown and black people are not growing up with wine on their table and they might not have the availability of funds to go out to restaurants.

But also, you know, it comes from a side, it's that wine and high end restaurants typically aren't marketed to brown and black people and other BIPOC people.

And so creating this award and putting a spotlight on the industry lets BIPOC people know that wine is for them, that the hospitality is for them, either as a customer, a client, or actually someone working.

I'm like, this is a great career to be in.

And so, you know, hopefully generationally, moving forward we'll start seeing more brown and black people in wine shops as customers or the person working behind the counter, sommeliers, wine directors, salespeople, and eventually, hopefully it will become more of an organic thing where we're just like, "Oh, this is a very diverse company and this just happened to be," but hopefully it starts from this award.