“People are thirsty” in Miami, says COTE’s Macarena Carrillo
Macarena Carrillo has looked after the wine at COTE Miami since it opened, in 2021. The Florida outpost of New York’s Korean steakhouse (opened in 2017) recently won two Gold Stars and three Silver Stars at Star Wine List of the Year Florida 2026, so we spoke to the Head Sommelier, who told us about Miami’s “curious” wine crowd and how she coordinates with the mothership over in the Big Apple.
Born in Buenos Aires, Macarena Carrillo grew up in Miami from an early age – and in the hospitality industry. “My dad’s a chef,” she told Krister Bengtsson at our recent awards ceremony in Miami. “So I’m a restaurant baby. I got into beverage maybe in 2019 or 2018. So it’s been a journey.”
She started working at COTE in 2021 and describes her five years there as “incredible, rewarding, challenging – a special journey.”
In May 2026, COTE Miami was awarded Gold Stars for the Best Long List and the Best Rosé Wine List in Florida, along with places on the shortlists for Best By-the-Glass List, Best Sparkling Wine List and Best Italian Wine List. Clearly, something’s going well.
“I can’t take full credit for it because we’ve had incredible wine managers come in through the years and share their expertise with us,” Macarena says. “Mia Van De Water, being a Master Sommelier, on our team, as well as Victoria James. You know, the mentorship is incredible. It’s been five years in the making ,with a lot of incredible touches and people behind it.”
A double-Gold-Star wine list
In Star Wine List of the Year Florida 2026, judge Kathrine Larsen-Robert MS (Group Wine Director at 67 Pall Mall), described COTE’s wine list as “thoughtfully curated and well balanced – concise yet complete, delivering all the essentials with precision. It stands out for its sense of adventure, offering an engaging and playful approach to wine with a breadth of choice that invites discovery and enjoyment.”
This explorative notion is echoed by Macarena, who tells us that “the wine scene in Miami has grown a lot. People are curious, people are interested, people are thirsty. Before they were thirsty for tequila, and now they’re curious: they want to try wines from different regions – not just Bordeaux, Tuscany, Napa, the big known ones – but people are experimental. I think ‘curious’ is the right word for how people are feeling in Miami.”
She describes the New York mothership as “the foundation” of what they do over in Miami. “There’s never any competition,” she says. “We’re one big happy house where it’s just a bunch of people working together and really loving what they do. The ethos is always the same: wines that are not only delicious, but speak to a sense of place. We all share the same foundation to what makes our programmes successful: we really try to highlight up-and-coming producers, regions, minorities, people of colour – just really working to fortify the industry and just shine new light where we can.”
Macarena and her crew were off to crack open some Champagne in celebration of their double win (“maybe rosé,” appropriately), but now have an invitation to consider: to join Star Wine List at the tour’s Global Final in southern Sweden this June (an event hosted by Terra Skåne).
In the meantime, Star Wine List itself proves a useful tool for the team.
“We use Star Wine List a lot,” says Macarena. “We look at different prices in different wine lists through the country, through the city. It’s a tool that we like to use to not only keep relevant but also be competitive in the market. I think it’s an incredible tool to also be able to compare pricing.”
Meet all the winners of Star Wine List of the Year Florida 2026.
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