GTCO Festival: Sommelier André Mack Redefines Wine Experience

The loudest applause at the GTCO Food and Drink Festival on Saturday didn’t come from a celebrity chef’s plating or a DJ set. It came when André Hueston Mack, Oregon winemaker and Bon Appétit host, told a packed room at GTCentre, Oniru: “Wine is not supposed to be intimidating. It belongs on your table next to the salt and pepper shaker.”

Swirling Cabernet with the ease of a man who once ran wine programs at The French Laundry, Mack turned his May 2 masterclass into equal parts science lesson, comedy set, and sermon on democratizing wine. “Wine is merely grape juice with a compelling narrative,” he told the Lagos crowd. “This narrative commences with sugar conversion.”

Holding up fresh grape juice, the first African American to win Best Young Sommelier in America broke fermentation down to its most human terms: “You have yeast that eat the sugars that turn it into alcohol. And that is the magic... They poop alcohol.” The room erupted.

Mack stripped the snobbery from wine talk. He explained vintages as “Mother Nature determining how that wine is made,” noting weather decides whether a wine is “age worthy” and laid down for 20, 30, even 50 years. “The idea is that wine gets better with time… the tannins, acidity and all those things simmer together.”

Oak barrels, he said, “express a lot of itself through wine vanilla, leather, that buttery flavor you get from Chardonnay.” But his real message was access. “I’ve tasted bottles in the millions of dollars,” said Mack, who now runs Maison Noir Wines in Oregon. “But some of the best wines I ever had… it’s a $3 bottle. Wine is a placeholder of time. It’s not about price.”

Mid-session, Mack coached the audience on how to actually drink. Swirl to “agitate a little bit, get some air into it.” Smell first: “Don’t be afraid. Exhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.” He compared it to childhood food aversions. “Taste is really about smell.”

For Mack, wine is biography in a bottle. “It tells the country’s history, its politics, its geography. Its chemistry, biology. It’s all these things that wine kind of provides for us.” His parting advice was practical: “To preserve freshness put in refrigerator.” His bigger note: “So enjoy wine.”

The masterclass captured GTCO 2026’s wider theme, “Everything Food and Drink,” by making space for new conversations. In a country where wine is often seen as luxury or foreign, Mack’s session gave permission. Attendees left repeating his mantra: “Wine is a condiment to life.”

At a festival that hosted 204 vendors and thousands of visitors from May 1–3 at Plot 1, Water Corporation Drive, Oniru, Mack’s hour proved food events can shift culture, not just commerce. As one guest said walking out: “He made me feel like I could buy a bottle tonight and not mess it up.”

André Hueston Mack, who left Citicorp to become a trailblazing sommelier, winemaker, designer, and author, continues to champion accessibility from his Brooklyn base. On Saturday in Lagos, he did it with laughter, science, and a glass in hand.