This feature is part of our 2023 Next Wave Awards.
Despite having a flourishing career in wine today, Cha McCoy actually started out as a civil engineer. While she didn’t know then that she wanted to become an entrepreneur, after observing the staggering lack of Black people and women in the field of civil engineering, she knew she wanted to devote herself to uplifting others. It wasn’t until 2010 that her love affair with wine would begin.
Studying for a degree in international finance in Italy, McCoy became enamored with Italian wine and the culture and lifestyle surrounding its consumption. By the time she graduated with her MBA, she knew she wanted to work in wine. But when she returned to the United States, she found that, despite her immense knowledge surrounding the beverage, no one took her seriously without sommelier or WSET certifications.
Credit: Jeff Brown
“I had this moment of realization where I thought, ‘Oh, if I don’t get myself into a higher role, I’ll never be able to reach back and pull people forward,’” McCoy explains. “So I thought that no matter what industry I was in, if it was engineering or wine, I needed to ensure I would be in a position where I could reach back and pull forward.”
She hustled. She still had a full-time career in civil engineering, but picked up a part-time job at The Winery, a wine shop in Harlem, and spent weekends as a special events coordinator for a Brooklyn
