Syracuse, N. Y. — International wine industry consultant Cha McCoy often uses the term “under-represented” when talking about her field of expertise. It covers a lot of bases.
It’s about under-represented wine styles and grape-growing regions, she says. It’s about wines that are under-represented in local stores and stores under-represented in certain neighborhoods. And it’s about people who are traditionally under-represented as wine producers and consumers.
“It’s really about broadening, widening and deepening the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of wine,” said McCoy, an industry professional whose company, Cha Squared, has clients across the United States and abroad.
This weekend, McCoy brings that concept to downtown Syracuse, where she’s opening her first retail shop, The Communion Wine + Spirits, in the ground floor of State Tower Building. The grand opening is Saturday, with a celebratory wine dinner is planned for Sunday. (See details below).
The shop will feature a carefully selected collection of wines from around the world, from Italy to the Finger Lakes. Expect brands and wineries you may not be familiar with, such as House of Brown, a Black-owned winery in California’s Napa Valley. She’ll highlight what are known as “low intervention” wines and unusual varieties like orange wine, which is made in the Finger Lakes.
Prices will range from roughly $13 to $45 a bottle, “so it’s not too high-end,” McCoy said.
The Communion will also offer a venue for tastings and classes and provide a launching point for wine tours and other experiences.
McCoy’s wine credentials are impressive: She’s a certified sommelier, a public speaker and an industry marketing consultant. She’s been named to Wine Enthusiast magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40 Tastemakers,” and Wine & Spirits magazine’s “Rising Black Voices in Wine.”
If it hadn’t been for the Covid pandemic, she might have opened her first shop in Lisbon, Portugal. She was there working as a consultant and sommelier and preparing the shop when Covid hit.
So why Syracuse? It’s a bit of a long story for someone who’s not yet 40, but McCoy says “the bread crumbs lead back to Syracuse.”
“It’s been a dream of mine for ten years,” she said. “And now it’s happening in Syracuse.”
McCoy grew up in Harlem, where she learned to embrace its history, especially stories of the renowned Harlem Renaissance, the artistic an cultural explosion of the 1920s and ‘30s.
“Champagne was a big part of that,” she said. “It added some glam and glitz.”
In 2003, McCoy enrolled at Syracuse University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 2007. While a student in Syracuse, she experienced very little of the community beyond the campus.
She worked as a civil engineer, in the building industry, before enrolling in a graduate program in Rome (Italy) and earning an MBA in international finance. It was while she was in Italy that her love of wine deepened.
What appealed to her most was the chance to discover the many Italian wines and styles that are lesser known to the general public — the under-represented wines.
Embarking on a new career path in wine, her efforts have included a wine tourism club called Flight Cru and a language program for people of color in the hospitality industry called Lip Service. She’s served as beverage director for the Charleston (S.C.) Wine + Food Festival and editor and beverage director for Cherry Bombe Magazine.
She also launched a series of pop-up curated wine dinners called The Communion, which she led in five different countries over three years. That’s what inspired the name for the wine shop.
McCoy also made frequent visits to the Syracuse area to visit friends and family. Broadening her own base of wine knowledge, she established relationship with the Finger Lakes wine community, at such wineries as Boundary Breaks, Kelby Russell and Hosmer. She became an ambassador for the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.
After leaving Portugal and returning to New York, she became increasingly drawn to Syracuse.
“It’s that idea of being under-represented but showing the ability to grow in quality at the same time,” she said. “I think Syracuse needs something like this to complement the growing beverage and culinary things that are happening.”
She cited, as examples, restaurants like Saint Urban just off Westcott Street and Eden CNY in Hanover Square (which is hosting Sunday’s dinner).
Downtown seemed like a good fit because of its growing population, especially among young people, and the State Tower Building offered a space that matched her concept.
It’s a good fit for downtown, too, said Heather Schroeder, director of economic development for the Downtown Committee of Syracuse. Periodic surveys conducted by the Downtown Committee have consistently ranked wine/liquor stores at or near the top of the list of, yes, under-represented retailers in the area.
“The exciting thing about Cha and her concept is that it fills that need for downtown residents and will also appeal to people who don’t live nearby but will come to experience it,” Schroeder said. “It’s a destination.”
On Saturday, the doors open for the first time at 1 p.m. A 7-course wine dinner curated takes place at 5 p.m. Sunday at Eden CNY restaurant, 118 E. Genesee St/ (Hanover Square). Info and tickets.
The Communion Wine + Spirits will be open from 1 to 8 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. An “E Commerce” shop will open ahead of the holidays, which is also when spirits will begin to appear on the shop’s shelves.
Other events and services offered through the shop will include Finger Lakes wine tours, global tours through McCoy’s Flight Cru Wine Club, a Sunday School (Wine 101 and Deep Dive Education), tasting sessions from winemakers and distillers, private tastings (both on- and off-site) and dinners.
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
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