060: Urban Grape CEO TJ Douglas

Boston Speaks Up

Guest TJ Douglas is the founder and CEO of The Urban Grape, a wine store in Boston’s South End neighborhood known for its proprietary Progressive Scale - a system of sorting wine by its body, instead of by varietal or region. Douglas has led The Urban Grape to becoming one of the most successful independently-owned wine stores in the country as a result. Douglas’ list of accomplishments is nothing short of astonishing. The Urban Grape has won multiple accolades as Boston’s Best Wine store from both Boston Magazine and The Improper Bostonian, as well as a Small Business of the Year Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in 2020. In 2018, Vinepair named The Urban Grape the top retail store in the North East, and Beverage Dynamics named the store a Top 100 Wine Retail Store in America in both 2019 and 2020. The store has also been nationally profiled in Food & Wine magazine, The New York Times, NPR, and Wine Enthusiast. He’s also a seven-time returning Sommelier for the Nantucket Wine Festival. Douglas also spends time teaching classes on drinking progressively at local places such as the Boston Center for Adult Education, Boston University, the Boston Wine Expo and for companies like Converse, Google, and Wellington. He’s also the co-author of The Urban Grape’s best selling wine education book Drink Progressively, and the resident wine expert on the New England lifestyle show, “Home, Life, and Design.” He co-founded and runs The Urban Grape with his wife Hadley Douglas. Together, they are also the co-founders of The Urban Grape Wine Studies Award for Students of Color, in partnership with Boston University. They are dedicated to increasing diversity in the wine industry through this program and provide mentorship to other people of color in the hospitality industry. The Douglas’ live in Boston with their two sons.