Exhausted by the lack of devoted places for queer folks in New York City, sommelier Ren Peir and food and beverage creative trent cofounded BABE, a pop-up queer wine bar, in 2024. Wanting to create a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ folks who enjoy wine, they had no idea the events would become so popular that tickets would sell out in an hour.
Over the past several years, LGBTQ wine professionals around the country like Peir and trent have been reimagining spaces for queer folks in wine. Traditionally, wine spaces have been overwhelmingly white, male, and straight, the opinions, voices, and palates that have been the default.
The vibe at BABE is unapologetically queer. “Wine can feel intimidating and exclusive,” says trent. “We are intentional about creating moments and a general experience that replaces [intimidation] with approachability, accessibility, and joy.”
BABE is not your traditional neighborhood wine bar experience, and that’s intentional. There are no dress codes, except to be “cute,” to be your most authentic self. A community collaboration, BABE events include DJs and culinary professionals to help curate an unforgettable experience. The music is lively, so dancing is always welcomed. And on special occasions like their holiday curation, you can find beautifully designed grazing tables for feasting all evening. While the team fundraises for a brick-and-mortar space, these wine bar curations are hosted throughout New York City at places like the Ace Hotel Brooklyn and intimate event spaces.
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“Queerness is not just about sexuality and gender; it’s our politics. That trickles down into how we show up in the wine world,” says Peir. Challenging the narratives of who is allowed to be a part of wine culture, even as industry professionals, she says “all of our sommeliers are QTBIPOC wine professionals with expansive knowledge and years of experience.”
“I've had many experiences in heteronormative environments where somms felt the need to explain wine only in terms of sweetness,” trent explains. “I know it’s because I'm Black.”
Peir and trent are not alone building this community, they’re tapping into a consumer demographic that has been largely swept under the rug.
After cofounding Wine Country Pride in 2020, a yearly Pride celebration in rural Oregon, winemaker Remy Drabkin wanted a specific occasion to celebrate queer winemakers and queer-led wineries, so she started Queer Wine Fest in 2022. “Queer spaces in wine are inherently catering to a neglected generation of drinkers—young consumers especially, and those interested in wine styles as diverse as the makers themselves,” says Drabkin. The yearly festival features around 20 wineries, including Augustina Cellars, Circadian Cellars, K&M Wines, and ROCO Winery. The wine-fueled festival features live music and catered food and draws a large crowd.
As these new spaces emerge, wine sales are on the decline. According to data from the industry data group SipSource, wine sales in the US in 2024 dropped approximately 6% from 2023. Wine professionals are understandably nervous about the decline in wine consumption and what it could mean for their businesses, but they remain optimistic.
Drabkin remains focused on consumers who haven’t had their needs met. “We’re a consumer demographic that would be foolish to ignore,” Drabkin explained. “All queer spaces, like all queer people, span generations, income levels, and racial demographics. They consistently have broad reach.”
After working at prominent restaurants around New York City, Telly Justice and Camille Lindsley opened HAGS in 2022. A fine dining restaurant in the East Village, the restaurant’s tagline is “by Queer people for all people.” HAGS prioritizes queerness and features vibrant pastel colors, brass-tinted tables, and a mostly queer staff. “Every day, we mentor young queer talent in our kitchen and front of house, giving them a workplace culture that celebrates who they are and empowers them to grow their professional skills,” says Lindsley. Every Sunday, they offer food on a sliding scale basis for brunch service, and the gender-neutral bathrooms are always stocked with harm reduction supplies.
At HAGS, hospitality is a major focus as sales decline. “It’s important for sommeliers to have a diverse range of skills they can offer to continue to adapt to the swing of the pendulum,” says Lindsley. “We have to change seeing our job as being all about wine. It’s about people and connection at the end of the day.”
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“I know that when I was in my 20s I wouldn’t have survived without places for me to hang out,” says Haley Fortier, owner of nathálie, a Boston-based wine bar. She believes devoted spaces for queer people foster belonging and safety. “We offer a place of comfort, camaraderie, and inclusion. Sometimes those factors are more important to many people than the actual food and wine. They want a place to come to grieve, to celebrate, and to just be.”
Declining consumption isn’t the only hurdle queer wine professionals face. From the effort to erase protections for LGBTQ folks and mass deportations, to businesses and institutions rolling back diversity and inclusion initiatives, the current political climate has become increasingly hostile to marginalized communities.
“When diversity and inclusion are politicized—maligned as though they’re distractions rather than strengths—it doesn’t just harm people, it stifles creativity and narrows the lens through which we experience culture,” says Drabkin. She says it’s an environment that’s hostile to queer visibility, and as a “vibrant counterpoint, [Queer Wine Fest] is creating space for growers, winemakers, drinkers, and thinkers who are too often told to shrink themselves to fit outdated molds.”
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At HAGS, they are finding meaningful new ways to use their space to uplift the community. “We host up-and-coming queer and trans chefs through pop-up collaborations, giving them 100% of food sales after food cost,” says Lindsley. “We’ve also worked with local sommeliers like Ramón Manglano, head somm at Chez Fifi and Cameron Philip, somm at Coqodaq, to raise funds for the Ali Forney Center as part of our Guest Somm Sunday programming.”
At nathálie, Fortier is worried about tariffs, believing it’s more important than ever to center marginalized voices and their products. “The wine industry is crippled at the moment with the on-again, off-again saga of tariffs and what that means for small producers nationally and globally,” explains Fortier. “It’s important for us to highlight the LGBTQ+ winemakers we’ve been supporting throughout our entire existence here in Boston. Our wine lists represent a very broad scope of makers from all over the world: gay makers, BIPOC makers, females, small producers that people have never heard of before." A few LGBTQ wine producers on the nathálie list includes Birdhorse Wines, Maloof Wines, and von der Vogelwaide.
Zwann Grays, a regular BABE somm, introduced her first wine label, The Feeder, in collaboration with Est Wines in 2023. That wine is regularly featured on the BABE wine list.
“One of our former employees, Oniyx Acosta, made their first vintage last year with Commonwealth Crush in Shenandoah Valley in Virginia,” says Lindsley of HAGS. “The wines are beautiful and unlike anything I've tasted before. We proudly have their wines on the first page of our by-the-bottle list, a page of queer-made wines.” Other queer-made wines at HAGS include Statera Cellars, Emme Wines, and Ruth Lewandowski Wines.
In a time of uncertainty in the wine world, queer wine professionals are creating approachable spaces and meaningful ways to connect and build community with wine-curious consumers who have been largely left out. Because as Lindsley says, “The more ways you can be included in wine, the better the wine world is for it.’