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Entrepreneur Ayele Solomon took his company, Bee D’Vine Honey Wine, to the Sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank to see if he could score an investment from one of the business moguls.
Solomon pitched his product to Sharks Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, Kevin O’Leary and guest Shark Daniel Lubetzky.
According to the episode synopsis, he brought his wine so he could try “to sweeten the deal and save the bees as he pitches his wine made from honey.”
Here’s what you should know about Bee D’Vine Honey Wine:
1. The Wine Has Been Featured on ‘The Today Show’
In 2014, Bee D’Vine Honey Wine was featured on NBC’s Today Show under hte name The Honey Wine Company. Their Honey Wine was featured in a segment called “Off the Beaten Path Wines,” and the hosts loved it when they tried it.
When they explained that the wine was made solely from water and honey, it was slightly surprising to the anchors at the time.
“Wow, it tastes like honey,” Hoda Kotb remarked, and the host mentioned that it was more of a dessert wine than anything else.
Shark Tank will be the wine’s second National TV experience.
2. The Idea Came to the Founder While Driving Through the Kafa Rainforest
According to the company’s website, Solomon came up with the concept for Honey Wine while driving through Ethiopia’s Kafa rainforest back in 2019.
“Why not find a way to make trees more valuable to local residents so that they had an incentive to protect them – not cut them down,” the website reads. “Inspired by his country’s national beverage t’ej (honey wine), Ayele realized that these flowering trees were an ideal source of nectar and pollen that bees use to make valuable honey.”
He then set out to truly understand the process behind the creation of Honey Wine using California honey at first.
3. Proceeds Finance Beehive Conversions in Ethiopia
The company’s website details how the honey is made and states that the people who currently live in the Kafa forest region of Ethiopia just live on a few dollars a day, and they’re being forced to cut down the rainforest.
The website states that Frame Behives and Top Bar Hives produce ten times more honey than regular hives, which allow the farmers to harvest more honey and, therefore, make more money.
“Proceeds from wine sales will finance modern beehive conversions in Kafa and earn Kafa families five times more household income while saving their forest and reducing carbon emissions,” the website reads.
4. There Are Plenty of Varieties of the Bee D’vine Wine
While the company does sell varieties of Honey Wine, they also sell grape wine, which is what most wine consumers are likely used to.
The honey wine comes in a regular honey wine or sparkling honey wine variation and the original can be purchased in a number of sizes with prices ranging from $29 to $349 depending on the type chosen. The sparkling honey wine can be purchased in either Brut or Demi Sec for $39.
They have two varieties of grape wine to choose from: the Wancha 2016 Chardonnay, which sells for $28, or the Wancha 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, which sells for $32.
5. The Honey Wine Company Opened a Physical Location in 2019
In December 2019, according to a press release, The Honey Wine Company opened a tasting bar in San Francisco’s Landmark Ferry Building. They are the only winery to have a wine-focused tasting bar in that building.
“It’s an honor, and our presence here is a testament to our precision winemaking and our unique and sustainable offerings of sweet and remarkably dry wines,” Soloman said, according to the press release.
Solomon was also named a 2019 Food & Wine Tastemaker. Tune in to Shark Tank to see if he can score an investment in his unique company.
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