In Person of Interest, we engage with individuals that are currently capturing our attention about their past and ongoing projects. Next, we have a conversation with Amari Collins, a wine caterer, educator, and content creator within the wine community.
Amari Collins has had enough of wine jargon, exhausted by pretense, and is committed to creating a relaxed atmosphere. She captures her typical Vin Dealer post on a tar roof just outside her bedroom window, often dancing without pants. She refers to qvevri, a traditional clay vessel from Georgia, as “a big ass clay pot.” The wine she’s enjoying, a Saperavi, is described as “Juicy Couture…with slightly naughty vibes.” Sharing a drink with Collins feels like hanging out with your closest friend rather than consulting a wine expert.
As the Vin Dealer on TikTok and Instagram and the creator of wine-infused dance events known as Swirl School, she boasts an impressive following of 22K wine enthusiasts who lack traditional knowledge but feel acknowledged and welcomed thanks to her “you got this, gurl” attitude. You won’t hear Collins likening wines to brioche or leather. Instead, she describes a Chardonnay as “a beachy blonde like Gwyneth Paltrow,” while a Riesling brings to mind the vibes of a plastic bouncy house. For her, natural wine has an armpit aroma, while pét-nat “is giving Seth Rogen in The Studio,” insights that resonate with many followers who are likely to be cracking open wine bottles to enjoy with tuna melts while binge-watching Heated Rivalry.
We had a conversation with Collins about her reasons for dancing without pants, why wine should be described through memories, and what it’s like to be recognized as a Black individual in a sector that is generally dominated by white individuals.
This interview has been curated and shortened for clarity.
Can you share a bit about your origins? Where did you grow up?
I hail from Silicon Valley; my family worked in tech. Growing up there in the late ’90s, I had a creatively inclined hippy father. In his wedding speech, he mentioned that we grew up together, which was accurate. Everything he pursued, I wanted to pursue as well, and wine was a significant part of that journey.
Your father introduced you to wine?
Absolutely, he was acquiring his [certification from] the Wine & Spirit Education Trust during my early teenage years, and we studied together. He would taste a wine and say, try this! We loved exploring wines and food together. That’s when it began. He had a curiosity for wine and a desire to be around it, but I’m living out the dream he had.
How did you end up in the wine industry?
I initially pursued dance and thought I would attend school for it, but I shifted to film and ended up in LA working in casting. I found it exhilarating and studied communications and film in NYC, eventually working at The View for a year. I kind of stumbled into the natural wine scene. There were only a handful of natural wine stores at that time. I’d walk into shops, choose bottles, and they would say, “You have good taste, would you like a job?” People were eager for me to work for them, which wasn’t something I experienced in other fields, so after the pandemic, I transitioned into wine sales. The wines I couldn’t sell, I’d flip to my friends. Then I started working at Radicle, a unique wine shop in Clinton Hill.
