Mikiah Glynn is determined to make her passion for wine a profitable enterprise and, while she’s doing that, she wants to shine a light on winemakers not normally in the spotlight.
The fruit of that passion is her new 1,500-square-foot Brix Wine shop, located in the Orleans Landing Apartments complex at 1588 Franklin St., a few blocks south of Jefferson Avenue and one block west of the Dequindre Cut.
“I absolutely love wine,” Glynn says. “This is my absolute passion.”
“This” is an airy, light-filled shop with light-colored natural wood shelves and red couches under two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows.
In addition to satisfying her passion for fermented grape juice, the east side Detroit native says she wants to use her store to educate people about wine and promote female vintners and winemakers of color.
Among the educational offerings at Brix Wine will be classes, tastings and food pairings, and small events. Front and center at those events, in addition to wines from around the world, will be vintages from African-American winemakers like Champagne by former Detroit Piston Isaiah Thomas and Oregon wine from Andrè Hueston Mack. Shoppers also will find Opulence, a wine brand owned by metro Detroiter Dr. LaToya Thompson.
“The industry isn’t really inclusive,” Glynn notes. “The goal for me here is to make it a bit more inclusive and remove some of the pretentiousness that comes with wine. There’s a huge misconception that the more you spend on wine, the better it’ll taste. That’s not true. It’s all about what you like.”
An oenophile since age 21, the 51-year-old entrepreneur says she’s hoping everyone will be able to find something they like and in their price range at Brix Wine. The offerings range in price from Prisma Rosé at $8 per can to $150 for a bottle of Laurent-Perrier Champagne.
Glynn also has her own private label brand, Haus of Harriet, which features a Cabernet and a sparkling wine made in California.
Brix Wine, which opened in May, isn’t Glynn’s first attempt at a wine-based establishment. In 2017, she and her then-husband opened Brix Wine and Charcuterie Boutique in an old Michigan National Bank Building on Detroit’s east side.
“It didn’t work out,” Glynn says. “It was literally raining inside the space.”
That establishment closed in 2018, but Glynn wasn’t deterred. “I started working to make this happen in August of 2018, when the first store closed.”
If the empty shelves at the conclusion of Brix Wine’s grand opening are any indication, her work is paying off.
