J Douglas is the
owner of The
Urban Grape, a
ground-breaking wine store in the South End neighborhood of Boston. The store concept is simple, but revolutionary – Drink Progressively. Their Progressive Shelving system of sorting wine by its body, instead of by varietal or region, brings ease and unexpected surprise to customers, and The Urban Grape has become one of the most successful independently-owned wine stores in the country as a result.
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
T
and 2020. The store has been nationally profiled in Food & Wine magazine, The New York Times, NPR, and Wine Enthusiast.
TJ is directly responsible for the stores’ successes. He has been profiled by
the New York Times and other regional and national publications. TJ is also a seven-time returning Sommelier for the Nantucket Wine Festival and co-authored The Urban Grape’s bestselling wine education book Drink Progressively.