Woman launches successful Black-owned wine company

BED-STUY, Brooklyn (WABC) -- It is not just the passion for Aamira Garba of Orange, New Jersey. Her purpose is paving the way. It was a path that was not always clear.

"I'd like to say I was living a checkbox life up until then. I went to college, graduated with honors, got married, bought a house, had kids, and the next thing you know, I was 24 and felt really burnt out as I was approaching 30 and realized that I didn't have a life that was fulfilling," Garba said.

The marketing executive launched her own winemaking company called Lovelee Wine. It is named after her two daughters, Heaven Lee and Lyric Lee.

She makes the wine in Northern California.

"It just started where I like to drink wine. I love California wines. I think they're beautiful. They're complex, and so I reached out to people to California to see if there was a process for me, a New Jersey girl, to make wine," Garba said.

It turned out, there is. Garba worked with a company called Crush Pads, allowing her to use their facility on the land to produce wine.

"My Pure Joy Pinot Noir (is) my favorite baby out of the bunch, and she is full of red cherries, strawberries, hint of vanilla, some violet. She smells great, she tastes great - she's a crowd favorite," added Garba.

Garba says the real work is marketing and branding the distribution.

"It's such a heavily regulated industry. That's where the real work begins," she says.

Work she says can be challenging for Black winemakers. One shop that is helping with that is Happy Cork Wine Shop near Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

"We have a huge focus on minority-owned, women-owned brands," said Happy Cork owner Sunshine Foss.

Foss says her shop has the largest selection of Black and minority-owned brands in the country.

"'Your Red' by Dwyane Wade, You also have your LVE by John Legend, and then right above that, you have your Lovelee Wine," said Foss.

"That's what we're focused on right now is raising the capital to continue to grow and scale so that we're ready for national distribution," Garba adds.

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