Sharron McCarthy, Banfi Vintners
Sharron McCarthy, a nationally respected food and wine consultant, is Vice President of Wine Education for Banfi Vintners, America's leading wine importer and a major producer of premium offerings from Italy. She is a Certified Specialist of Wine and President of the Society of Wine Educators.
In her role, Ms. McCarthy is responsible for designing and conducting wine seminars that provide the company's sales personnel, distributor staffs, trade organizations, students in the hospitality sector, and select opinion-making consumer groups with a broader knowledge and greater appreciation of wine in general and Banfi's wine portfolio in particular.
Initial sessions begin with the basics: how wines are made and how they differ. Participants learn to become especially sensitive to the particular aromas and flavors of wine. Her courses run from two hours to two and a half days. They are conducted in myriad locations, ranging from college lecture halls to Banfi's world headquarters in Old Brookville, New York.
Prior to her current appointment, Ms. McCarthy was Banfi's executive director for Riunite wines. She developed sales and marketing strategies for the brand which has been the nation's top-selling Italian wine for the over three decades. Her career in the wine field actually began with Banfi in 1978 when she joined the firm's consumer affairs department. She left Banfi in 1986 to form her own consulting agency, serving such clients as the Italian Trade Commission in New York and the Enoteca Italiana in Siena, Italy, until she rejoined the firm eight years later.
Throughout her career, Ms. McCarthy has conducted food and beverage management courses at the Culinary Institute of America, New York University, New School for Social Research, Cornell University and the Smithsonian. She also has addressed and been associated with various enogastronomic groups including the American Institute of Wine and Food, the American Wine Society and the Society of Wine Educators, Sommelier Society of America, New York Women's Culinary Alliance, The Dionysian Wine Society International and the New York Culinary Historians. She is also an associate member of the Cornell Hotel Society.
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