Alicia Barrett is driven by a passion for crafting exceptional experiences through thoughtful, immersive wine education. With a background that bridges hospitality, retail, and nonprofit leadership, she brings a unique blend of business acumen and teaching expertise to the wine world.

Her journey began with a transformative trip to Burgundy that sparked a lifelong passion for wine and inspired her to pursue formal training at the global headquarters of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) in London. After returning to the United States, Alicia worked as a sommelier at the InterContinental Hotel Chicago and in fine wine retail while earning her WSET Diploma in 2020, a distinction held by just over 10,000 individuals worldwide.

As Head of Wine Education for Binny’s Beverage Depot, the Midwest’s largest wine and spirits retailer, Alicia spent six years developing one of the country’s most comprehensive retail wine education programs. She trained nearly 2,000 employees across 45 stores, elevating product knowledge, service standards, and sales performance across the company. Alicia also served as a WSET Instructor for the American Wine School.

Presently, she is the Chicago-based educator for the U.S. Champagne Bureau training sommeliers, trade professionals and hospitality students at DePaul University on behalf of the region. She has founded her own company, Wine Connection, to represent wineries and trade bodies in the Chicago market.

Her work has taken her around the world, collaborating with winemakers and trade professionals to design engaging, accessible, and commercially relevant wine education experiences. As a judge at the Sommeliers Choice Awards, Alicia brings both an educator’s discipline and a retailer’s insight—helping entrants understand not only how their wines perform technically, but how they connect with real-world buyers, sommeliers, and consumers.