Davon D. E. Hatchett Bets On Herself
Davon D. E. Hatchett Bets On Herself
The wine lawyer and champagne evangelist wants everyone to unapologetically take up space.
People love to wax poetic about winemaking—the terroir, the soil, the agriculture, the people, the memories, the flavors, the connections. But Davon D. E. Hatchett says we’re all forgetting to talk about the big thing that can mean the difference between success and failure.
“The business of wine can really make or break projects, people, entities, everything,” she says. Things like trademark protection, contracts, and legal regulations might not be romantic, but they’re crucial to operating a successful brand. In her opinion, we need to have more—many more—conversations about it.
Davon, or The Bubbleista, calls herself a multi-hyphenate working in various spaces in wine (especially sparkling wine and champagne, thus her moniker). She’s a freelance wine writer, an event coordinator, and lawyer specializing in wine law, a niche area that’s as overlooked as it is important.
It’s not what she initially thought she’d end up doing. In fact, she didn’t think she’d end up in wine at all.
In college, she heard about a free wine tasting happening nearby. “I couldn't get anybody else to go, but I was interested in going because of the magic word: free,” she laughs. Before that, she hadn’t tried many wines. But throughout her entire life, her mom actively tried to introduce her and her siblings to all the food and drink experiences she possibly could, which ultimately sparked Davon’s lifelong open-minded palate.
“[She] kind of ingrained in us to explore other places and take up space in places where you might not necessarily think you should, or could, or would be. That really is how I kind of ended up going into wine,” she explains.
At the event, Davon wasn’t initially impressed. She hadn’t found anything she liked, and was on her way out the door when she happened to stop by the sparkling wine table. “I had what I call a ‘palate moment,’” she recalls. Something clicked in her brain and she knew she had found something special. Sparkling wine was her gateway into a brand new world, and once she started down the path, she never stopped.
Even still, she had no idea that wine would be anything more than a passionate hobby. But the more she talked about it with friends and explored it for herself, she realized she could share her joy with even more people by writing about it.
“The more that I got involved in it, it was almost like a relationship,” Davon laughs, calling it a “full-blown love affair.” She started writing about food and wine as a freelancer, using her scientific knowledge to bolster her work. (She has an undergraduate degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry, which is probably why she’s so interested in the scientific workings of effervescence!)
Davon launched her own blog, The Bubbleista, to tell the stories she wanted to and be able to freely focus on her love of bubbles. From there, she started hosting champagne and sparkling wine events, which had to be put on hold during the pandemic, all while going to law school. It was there the second part of her wine journey clicked into place.
“While I was in law school, I took a class in intellectual property. I did not expect this to happen, but I LOVED the content in this class,” she says, adding that she ended up getting the highest grade in the class. She loved it so much that she ended up working for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) near Washington, D.C. until she had to return to Texas for family. But rather than set aside her passions, she decided to merge them, despite some skeptics.
“I actually went and talked to one of my professors at law school when I moved back, and he essentially told me you can't have a viable practice in trademark law,” she recalls, disappointed. While she figured out what direction she wanted to go, she started working in corporate consulting and taking continuing legal education classes that Texas required. It was there that she first realized the potential for working in beverage and hospitality law.
Her first client was from outside the U.S. and wanted to file a trademark here—an application that requires they use a U.S.-based attorney. It was off to the races.
“I have my racing tennis shoes in several different lanes in wine,” she laughs, rattling off everything she does and hopes to do: create wine content, work on brand collaborations, get back into hosting wine events, and eventually do more speaking gigs, seminars, and workshops in the future.
Still, she dreams bigger. “I also am focused on wanting to help more BIPOC people in the industry to launch, build, grow and expand businesses,” Davon says. “Let's make sure you've got the contracts that you need. If you have a brandable business, let's harness that. Let's figure out what intellectual property protection you may need. Let's figure out what kind of brand story development you need.”
She hopes that one day, her efforts and the efforts of other historically marginalized people working in wine will change the industry to its core.
“My dream of dreams is to one day see a person—specifically a woman, but a person of color—become a wine maker, cellar master, whatever you want to call it, in the Champagne region. I could die happy if even saw somebody on that road,” she says. “ I want people to see more women and people of color in these very kind of public spaces… I’m hoping something that I do can make that kind of impact.”
For that to happen, Davon says people need to be fearless about their vision.
“People who don't understand it are always going to criticize it. They're always going to try to deter you,” she warns. “But if you have something specific in mind, or you have a vision in mind that you want to achieve or accomplish, always bet on yourself. Always bet on your own intellectual capital. Always bet on your own genius. Always bet on yourself.”
Follow Davon on Instagram at @thebubbleista and check out her website at thebubbleista.com.
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