GREG HARRINGTON, Master Sommelier
In 1996 at the age of 26, Greg Harrington became the youngest American to pass the Master Sommelier exam, a title held by less than 75 people in the United States. Currently, Greg Harrington is the owner of and winemaker of Gramercy Cellars, a boutique winery in Walla Walla, WA focusing on small lot, terroir based wines, primarily syrah. Greg is also the founder of The Wine Workshops, a national training company for both sommeliers and wine lovers.
Prior to founding Gramercy, Harrington was a Partner and Director of Beverage for B.R. Guest and James Hotels, overseeing 15 restaurants and hotels in New York, Las Vegas, Scottsdale and Chicago. During his tenure at B. R Guest, Harrington was instrumental in the development and openings of 8 restaurants in New York, Scottsdale, Chicago and Las Vegas as well as the James Hotel in Arizona. At B.R. Guest, Harrington also developed an extensive service and wine/spirits training program, graduating over 1,200 students since 2001.
Prior to joining B.R. Guest, Harrington served as Wine Director and Associate Partner for the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group in Las Vegas. In addition to managing beverage programs for Spago in Chicago, Las Vegas, Maui and Palo Alto, Harrington also oversaw operations for the group’s five Las Vegas based restaurants. He was a key partner in the openings of Lupo, Postrio and Cili. While in Las Vegas, Harrington also spent six months with Southern Wine & Spirits developing a new business segment, Battle Born Distribution, which assisted the Bellagio in its casino opening and its beverage group in fine wine procurement.
Before his work with Wolfgang Puck, Harrington was Wine Director for Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants in New Orleans and Las Vegas. While with Emeril’s Harrington developed a wine program that earned Wine Spectator’s Grand Award, which has been awarded to fewer than 100 restaurants in the United States.
In 1996 at the age of 26, Harrington became the youngest American to pass the Master Sommelier exam, a title held by 58 people in the United States. The rigorous three day exam, administered by the Court of Master Sommeliers in London, includes wine and spirits theory, beverage service, and blind tasting. A 1992 graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, Harrington spent his teenage and college years working both the front and back of the house in various restaurants on the East Coast. Upon graduating, Harrington developed and opened a family-owned restaurant, Harrington’s Steak House, in Las Vegas. He began his focus on beverage as a sommelier in 1994 at Joyce Goldstein’s Square One in San Francisco.
Harrington is an award winning sommelier, with every wine program under his direction having won a Wine Spectator award, including 21 Awards of Excellence, 4 Best of Awards of Excellence and one Grand Award. Food and Wine Magazine featured him in the November 2004 issue, selected as one of the 35 Top Hospitality Professionals Under 35.
He is a regular speaker at wine festivals throughout the country including such prestigious events such as the Masters of Food and Wine at the Highlands and the New York Restaurant Show. Harrington is also frequently quoted by the world’s leading wine and lifestyle magazines (Sante’, Wine Spectator, Wine and Spirits, Food and Wine, Gourmet, Wine Enthusiast, Market Watch, Restaurants and Institutions, Restaurant Business, Cheers, Smart Money, Cigar Aficionado) as well as major daily newspapers (The New York Times, New York Daily News, The New York Post, Wall Street Journal). He is the author of a section about food and wine pairings in Emeril Lagasse’s Creole Christmas, a New York Times bestseller. Additionally, Harrington is often a guest for television and radio programs, having been featured recently as a wine expert on the hit TV show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. CNBC recently aired a segment about Harrington’s position with B.R. Guest and continues to seek his expert opinion. Harrington has four times been the featured sommelier at the acclaimed James Beard House in New York City and is a regular educational guest lecturer for the Culinary Institute of America as well as for undergraduate and graduate beverage management courses at the Cornell Hotel School.