McCoy, Carlton

Impact on the world

Raised by his grandmother in a Washington, D.C. neighborhood affected by the crack epidemic, McCoy discovered wine through a class at the Culinary Institute of America and rose through some of the country's most acclaimed wine programs — Thomas Keller's Per Se, The Little Nell in Aspen — before passing the Master Sommelier exam in 2013, becoming only the second African American in the credential's history. In 2018 he became President and CEO of Heitz Cellar, a storied Napa Valley winery, making him Napa Valley's first Black CEO, and now leads Lawrence Wine Estates, overseeing roughly eighty employees across ten wine brands in Napa and Bordeaux. He co-founded The Roots Fund in 2020 with Tahiirah Habibi and Ikimi Dubose to fund education and career pathways into the wine industry for Black and Indigenous people, sits on the Court of Master Sommeliers' Diversity Committee and the James Beard Foundation's Board of Trustees, and was named Wine Enthusiast's 2023 Social Visionary of the Year.

Life & background

Born in Washington, D.C., to a mother who died when he was young and a father often absent due to incarceration, McCoy was raised by his grandmother, a Pentecostal preacher and neighborhood caterer, in the Anacostia area during the city's crack-epidemic years; he was expelled from two high schools before a culinary-arts program (C-CAP) connected him with chef-mentor Doug Anderson and a full scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America, where he graduated in 2006. He honed his cooking and wine skills at Thomas Keller's Per Se, Marcus Samuelsson's Aquavit, and Eric Ziebold's CityZen in Washington, D.C., where sommelier Andy Myers first encouraged him toward a wine career; in 2011 he joined The Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado, and passed the Master Sommelier exam on his first attempt in 2013. After being promoted to Wine Director at The Little Nell, he became President and CEO of Heitz Cellar in December 2018 and later CEO of Lawrence Wine Estates. He has hosted the CNN travel series “Nomad with Carlton McCoy” and remains active mentoring young people of color entering the wine and hospitality industries through The Roots Fund.

Sources

1. CNN; Court of Master Sommeliers Americas; Decanter; Forbes; Total Food Service (Q&A)