Helen McCarthy is the first female Director of Global Wine at Accolade Wines. Following the completion of her winemaking degree at the University of Adelaide, Helen has dedicated her career to pursuing her passion for winemaking.
Helen’s recent promotion to Director of Global Wine at Accolade, one of Australia’s largest wine companies, is a historic feat. As the first woman to hold this position, she now leads a strong team of talented winemakers, including the women behind globally renowned wines such as Hardys, House of Arras, Bay of Fires and Petaluma.
On the role, she says “as the first female to have the honour of holding the title of Accolade Wine’s Global Director of Wine and Chief Winemaker of Hardys Wines, I have a responsibility to be a role model for up-and-coming wine professionals. I am proud to lead a balanced team of highly talented winemakers across gender and age groups who all share the passion for creating beautiful wines.”
McCarthy considers her current role to be her greatest achievement thus far: “I am proud of the work I have put in to get to this point and I’m excited about the future. I’m extremely proud of the example I have set for my 10 year old daughter. She will never doubt that she can achieve big things in life, she will never feel that she won’t be heard, she will never expect to feel that she has been overlooked because of her gender.”
Helen has received a number of awards for her talent and expertise within the wine industry. Among these are the Gourmet Traveller Kemeny’s Medal for Young Winemaker of the Year 2008 and the People’s Choice Wine Society Young Winemaker of the year in both 2008 and 2018. Helen is also an experienced wine show judge and has participated in the Wine Industry Future Leaders program and is a graduate of the esteemed Len Evans Tutorial.
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