Bee D’vine Before Shark Tank
Bee D’vine is a company that makes an eco-friendly, 150-calorie honey wine, also known as mead. This company uses fresh, raw honey that is purchased from beekeepers to make their honey wine, along with pure spring water, grains, hops, spices, and fruit. To make the wine, the honey and water are combined and moved into a barrel for up to 15 months. Once this process has been completed, the wine, which now has hints of jasmine, almond, and honeysuckle, is bottled and left to sit for 2 years. Bee D’vine honey wines are a smooth, dry, and sweet blend of wine, and they do not contain any bitterness in their flavor profile. These honey wines are available in a variety of different kinds, and they contain 11.5%–12.5% alcohol. Prices for Bee D’vine wines range from $10 to $349.
Bee D’vine is a Sonoma, California-based company that was founded in 2009 by Ayele Solomon. Ayele is from Ethiopia, where wine drinking is highly popular. He and his family relocated to the Bay Area in California when he was 12 years old. Years later, Ayele enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, to pursue a degree in Environmental Economics. He also attended Michigan State University to do some natural resource development. Later on, in 2009, Ayele took part in an internship with the Environmental Protection Agency, which led him on a trip back to Ethiopia to visit the Kafa rainforest. While he was there, he realized how valuable the trees in the rainforest really were; they all provided a source for bees to get nectar. Due to this, he wanted to help save the trees to stop them from being chopped down to expand the forest for housing, thus giving him the idea to create a honey wine. 
In 2005, Ayele’s father, Solomon, started a grape vineyard near Sonoma Valley. This vineyard is known as Sol Farms, which Ayele has helped manage, giving him the experience needed to start Bee D’vine. After returning to California, the founder eventually started reaching out to biochemists, winemakers, chemists, and beekeepers around California in order to get the honey wine production process started. The Bee D’vine winery exists in Napa Valley, though they have also opened a wine tasting area in the Ferry Building in San Francisco, California. While Bee D’vine honey wines have yet to be promoted and grown internationally, Ayele is setting out to appear on Shark Tank in the hopes that a shark can help him start the next phase of his business.
Bee D’vine on Shark Tank
Ayele Solomon took her Bee D’vine honey wines to the shark on November 13, 2020. He was asking for an offer of $750,000 in exchange for a 20% stake in this $3.7 million company. The founder begins telling his story and explains how Bee D’vine has become a reality. He invested $600,000 in the startup of his winery business. He then goes on to discuss a few key differences between the honey wine and other wines around the world. At this time, the sharks give the wine a taste, leading them to commend Ayele on the flavor profile of the wines. Before the sharks start making offers, Robert Herjavec asks about the cost of the wine. Ayele tells him that the sparkling wine sells for $49, and the non-sparkling wine sells for $39. With those prices in mind, Bee D’vine did $115,000 in sales in 2019 and another $400,000 in 2020. 
Mark Cuban tells the entrepreneur that he thinks the price of the wine is too high. Kevin O’Leary agrees with this statement, adding that many wines run about $14. The founder explains that the higher prices are being used as a strategy for the high margins. Robert doesn’t think that many consumers will want to buy the honey wine due to the price. Nonetheless, Ayele is offered a deal from four sharks. Together, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Mark Cuban, and Daniel Lubetzky offer the founder $750,000 in exchange for a 40% stake in Bee D’vine. Ayele accepts their offer.
Bee D’vine Now in 2024 – The After Shark Tank Update
Ayele Solomon successfully secured a deal with four sharks during his Shark Tank visit. As of February 2024, the deal Ayele got with Lori Greiner, Daniel Lubetzky, Robert Herjavec, and Mark Cuban has not closed yet. After the episode aired, Bee D’vine saw an increase in their overall sales. After the show, the company did entirely sell out of the honey wine; however, they restocked, and within just a couple of weeks, the company had done $1 million in sales. Ayele now donates 1% of all wine sales to the Kafa rainforest community back in Ethiopia. Additionally, the founder has decided to lower the prices a bit, and he has launched a subscription service that offers two free glasses of wine at a shipping rate of $25.
