Brian Carter, fresh off of his 41st crush as a winemaker, introduced Andreina Bacigalupo as the new marketing and sales director for Brian Carter Cellars, which operates tasting rooms in Woodinville, Wash., and Vancouver USA.
Bacigalupo, a native of Venezuela, joins Carter’s team after spending more than a decade working for The Kroger Co., Chile-based Viña Concha & Toro, Bodegas Piedra Negra of Argentina, rum producer Ron Santa Teresa in Venezuela and engineering giant Siemens AG. She will draw from those experiences in her work for Carter, duties that include overseeing the direct-to-consumer (DTC) and key accounts channels.
“All of us at Brian Carter Cellars are very pleased to have Andreina on our team,” Carter said in a news release. “Her knowledge, experience and energy are already showing very positive results.”
Her résumé includes four years as category manager of multicultural sales at Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer in the Northwest.
“I believe my multicultural background will help us in reaching diverse audiences most effectively,” Bacigalupo told Great Northwest Wine.
Last summer, Carter opened the Brian Carter Cellars Tasting Room & Wine Bar on the Vancouver Waterfront at Block 6. The menu served in the 1,200-square-foot retail space on the ground floor of the Rediviva Building features house-made soups, salads, flatbreads and tapas created to complement the BCC portfolio.
Sales support arrives for Carter, Takahashi
Carter and longtime assistant winemaker Robert Takahashi rank among the Northwest’s most talented producers. In addition to Carter’s eponymous brand, the diversity of their work includes crafting the wines for Bayernmoor Cellars in Stanwood and Chardonnay-focused Array Cellars in Woodinville.
In 2015, Wine Press Northwest magazine named Brian Carter Cellars as the Washington Winery of the Year.
Bacigalupo recently arrived in the Seattle area after spending eight years in the wine and spirits industry in Atlanta, Ga., most of it with Kroger. Her work history includes educational events and developing marketing/sales strategies for multinational and boutique wineries.
Along the way, the certified sommelier has shared her expertise and experiences via conferences about personal and professional growth geared to the Latin community in the Southeast as a founding member of the non-profit organization Camino al Triunfo, which translates as Road to Success.
Bacigalupo earned a master’s degree in marketing from The Central University of Venezuela in Caracas and is completing a digital marketing certificate from the University of Illinois.
Her educational background includes Wine & Spirit Education Trust level II, and she recently launched Keeping Wine Fun, a series of short educational videos on Instagram. “Building the next generation of #smartwinelovers” is the tagline.
“Keeping Wine Fun is a passion project I started a few months ago, with the idea of engaging young generations with the world of wine by providing them with fun, factual and easy-to-understand information,” says Bacigalupo, who also goes by the nickname of Andi.
“This is a project 100% dedicated to wine education in a bilingual English/Spanish environment,” she continues. “I am thankful that Brian is also a believer on wine education and supports my personal project, and wine education will be part of my marketing strategies to increase the brand awareness of Brian Carter Cellars.”
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