UK

Johnny McCarthy

Johnny McCarthy has been a wheelchair user from birth, and he says that this, quite literally, makes him view wineries differently. “Sometimes,” he says, “this is as glamours as getting to use lifts usually reserved for the containers used for rack and return. Or getting covered in mold and dirt while crawling down the steps of the ancient cellar under Clos Fourtet.” Johnny’s fascination with wine began when his father in-law introduced him to fine wine in the shape of a bottle of 1990 Leoville Barton. Johnny remembers being blown away by the wine and his interest in learning more grew from there.

It was through his job in trade that Johnny became acquainted with the owner of a little wine shop he had never heard of called The Wine Rack – his current place of work – located in the village of Stewartstown, which he had also never heard of. Upon completing his WSET Level 2 in Wine, he joined the shop on weekends, and upon completing his WSET Diploma in Wine quit his corporate job and is now working at The Wine Rack full-time.