One entrepreneurial alumnus turned his sights from water to wine.
During his junior year, Brian Leventhal, BSBA ’05, founded Wydown Water, the on-campus business that brings water coolers to dorm rooms. Now, he owns and runs Brooklyn Winery, a make-your-own winery and wine bar in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Before this, I never served people in any capacity,” he says. “I was more of a ‘working-in-a-cubicle-with-a-computer’ kind of guy.”
Nonetheless, Leventhal currently runs a prosperous winery that has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and dozens of articles in other publications.
But until recently, wine wasn’t even Leventhal’s passion. His true love was business, something he learned to enjoy through the Student Entrepreneurial Program (StEP) at the university.
“Running Wydown Water was probably one of the most valuable experiences I had while attending Washington University,” Leventhal says. “Running that business really sparked my entrepreneurial flames.”
Leventhal knew that he wanted to run a business when he graduated, but he wasn’t sure what it would be. He spent a few years consulting before moving on to an online startup, www.expotv.com.
“I decided to get a sound business foundation,” Leventhal says. “I needed to figure out how a small company operates.”
While there, he met his current business partner, John Stires, and stumbled onto the idea of establishing a winery in Brooklyn.
“We believe the experience we offer to people, to make their own wine, is something they can’t get anywhere else,” Leventhal says.
One day, some of his co-workers at EXPO decided to go to a make-your-own winery in New Jersey. Since none of them owned cars, it took an hour-and-a-half to get to their hour-long lesson using public transportation.
Even so, the group kept going back, for a full three years.
“We enjoyed going,” Leventhal says. “The fact that we had traveled an hour-and-a-half each direction for an hour-long lesson proved it was worth doing.”
So Leventhal and his partner decided to bring the same concept to New York City.
“People love to drink wine in New York, but I felt there wasn’t much knowledge of how it got made,” Leventhal says. “Brooklyn is probably the hottest part of New York City, especially the Williamsburg neighborhood where Brooklyn Winery is located. New development is out of control — both residential and commercial — and the food and beverage scene is really growing.”
While Leventhal and his partner began planning their own winery, a space suiting their needs opened up. The time was ripe to make their idea a reality.
The establishment opened in fall 2010, just in time for the grape harvesting season.
Leventhal’s clients can sign up in groups to make their own wine. Clients are asked to describe vividly what type of wine they want to make. They can even bring in a favorite bottle and create a similar libation. Brooklyn Winery’s master winemaker can work magic, according to Leventhal.
Clients come back to the winery once a month throughout the yearlong process. They help crush the grapes, separate the wine from fermented fruit and design their own labels.
“It’s extremely interactive and hands on,” Leventhal says. “We believe the experience we offer to people, to make their own wine, is something they can’t get anywhere else.”
But for those who don’t want to invest in the whole process, Brooklyn Winery makes its own wines, too, which are sold in bottles or by the glass at the winery’s wine bar.
In order to eliminate waste, Leventhal created a tap system for his wines served in-house, which are then stored in a keg.
Over the past year, Leventhal discovered that not only does he love having a successful business, but he also enjoys serving people and giving them a valuable experience.
“One of the most rewarding parts of my job is making people happy,” Leventhal says. “It’s great working hard during business hours, and then at six o’clock, I walk downstairs and I’m in my bar watching people drink our wine and smile with their friends.”
Visit www.bkwinery.com to learn more.
Michelle Merlin, Arts & Sciences Class of ’12, was a summer writing intern in University Marketing & Design.
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