Dan was the co-owner of top shelf Seattle wine shop McCarthy & Schiering. He opened the original shop (a few blocks from my house) in 1980, and partnered with Jay Schiering a few years later. Dan and Jay sold their two shops in the summer of 2021 and the new owner has maintained the tradition and the name.
Dan was one of the most knowledgable wine people in the area, and I was always happy when I got to share a bottle with him. I remember one time in 2001 when he came in to Seattle Wine Storage to get a bottle from his locker for his 50th birthday, a birth year bottle of 1951 BV Georges de Latour Private Reserve. He said a previous bottle was the 2nd best bottle he had ever had (which was saying a lot!). I asked what was the best and he said 1948 Martin Ray cabernet. It just so happened that I had a bottle of 1947 and 1948 Martin Ray that I was planning a dinner around later that year.
Dan had been dealing with some health problems the last few years. He died on Saturday in Huatulco, Mexico. He will be missed by thousands of friends and loyal customers.
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Very sad. Dan was a great wine merchant and just a terrific person in general. I’m honored to have known him, sold wine to him, bought wine from him and poured in his store a couple of times. An excellent gentleman.
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Thanks, Chuck, for posting this. Dan has been a friend and drinking buddy for nearly 40 years. He and his wife’s dream after retiring was to move to Mexico, and despite declining health he finally made it, but unfortunately didn’t last long, Our tasting group that he basically anchored had a regular get together planned for later this week. Now, it has become somewhat of a memorial, and we all have plans to bring bottles with special significance with regard to Dan.
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Dan was a great guy, knowledgeable and generous.
I was lucky enough to work for Dan briefly earlier in my wine journey. He was a terrific person, generous and knowledgeable and willing to share his honest opinion. His experiences both in wine and life were fascinating and he will be missed.
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Oh no, I am so sad to hear that. Dan was one of the absolute best people in wine.
He and Mila deserved a much longer run.
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Thanks for posting Chuck! Dan was incredibly knowledgeable and generous with his time and advice. A true Seattle legend who will be missed.
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Chuck,
Thank you for posting. I tasted with Dan a dozen times or more and rarely met any customer more knowledgeable and enthusiastic. He didn’t mind telling me when he didn’t like something, but it was always with warmth and courtesy. He will be missed.
Dan Kravitz
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I had the pleasure of meeting Dan 6 or 7 years ago. He was incredibly generous with his knowledge and expertise, and shared some amazing bottles with me. A true gentleman in every sense of the word. I regret that I got to spend so little time with him.
He and Mila were together for 25 years. A long time, but I’m sure they would have liked it to be 40! They had been planning to buy property in Huatulco but that never happened.
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Ugh. This makes me so sad.
I have known Dan since becoming his sales rep back in 2005. He was 1 of 2 people I was terrified to call on as I knew his reputation and how he used to write all the wine lists for Seattle restaurants back in the day.
I have never met someone so knowledgeable, and so unselfish in giving of that knowledge. I look back at Dan as more of a mentor, father figure, and friend than as a customer. I used to spend Thursday’s after work in M&S with an array of wines, trying to learn my book with Dan, while chatting with Dan about regions, vineyards, slopes, his copper stirrer for reduced wines, whatever came to mind.
We had great lunches together one in particular with Jay and Bill, sitting at Campagne one lunch when Bill reaches down for a late lunch wine and it is a 1961 Domaine Leroy Musigny.
Dan gave me the greatest compliment I ever heard, and never even said it to me, when a rep with another company asked him about me before an interview and Dan told him “Kris is family, he can come and go in this shop as he pleases.”
I knew Dan had health issues, I was texting with him in early 2020, and was asking him to go get lunch and drink the 2008 Coche CC we had stashed and he was holding as we should celebrate with all that had gone on, and just drink it, when he told me he couldn’t go because he was in the hospital.
I loved Dan, he will always be a wine father figure for me and a friend and I am sad we will never get to share another wine or story together, but happy that I have so many stories about Dan and I.
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This is very sad news. I was a customer of his for many years. A perfect gentleman with a humble demeanor that belied his enormous wealth of knowledge.
Kris, great story, that’s so like Bill. Deep cellar and very generous. Although that had better have been a Maison Leroy, not Domaine!
@Chuck_Miller
It was Domaine or at least red wax sealed. Sennen from Ethan Stowell Group was having lunch with his girlfriend at the time and I dropped off a couple ounces of my pour with him.
I have a lot of memories with Dan, we spent a lot of Thursday afternoon’s together before he headed home or Mila picked him up and usually something from A&J, some much funnier I can’t share here. Not surprised he headed to Mexico last week, he loved it there, just sad he didn’t get to enjoy it longer.
Please keep me in loop if there is a celebration for Dan in Seattle.
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Yes, a legend in this town. I mostly shopped at the Ravenna store (and got to know Jay Schiering) due to proximity but dropped by Queen Anne on occasion. Dan will be sorely missed.
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Chuck, thanks for posting this. As the title of your post so perfectly says, Dan was and is an absolute legend in the Seattle wine scene… He was instrumental in getting Cadence off the ground back when Ben was part of the Boeing wine club in the mid-90s, and certainly advocated for many other small wineries. One of our very first, most important and longest-standing accounts. Everyone would look forward to the annual Cadence tasting with Ben every November, which ran for 22(?) consecutive years until Covid interrupted the streak. And as others have already noted, he served as a mentor/father figure/inspiration/favorite account to many a Seattle sales rep, myself included. I’ve never been the type of sales guy to tell people what they’re tasting, but especially with Dan, I would look forward to pouring him wine just so I could listen to, and learn from, his expert analysis.
Dan would help organize Stephen Tanzer’s yearly visits to Washington for his annual report, and they would always set up shop at Cadence for a few days to taste samples and meet with local winemakers. Before Tanzer retired and Covid struck, I was fortunate to to sit in for one of these days in July 2019, shortly after I started at the winery… I just kept my mouth shut and took it all in, the discussion between these two great palates was incredible and one of my favorite industry memories.
I’ll attach a favorite photo from a few years ago in the shop- I think Stacy was behind this, but they made a life-size cardboard cutout of Dan. As was typical of his sense of humor, he’s wearing a blue “MAGA” hat that says Make Assholes Go Away.
Rest in peace, Mr. McCarthy. You will be missed.
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Sounds like a veritable institution has been lost in Dan’s passing. I’ve shopped in Seattle a bunch and gone there too many times to count, more so now since I’ve moved, and somehow never made my way to McCarthy and Shiering. I need to rectify that soon. RIP.
I can’t add much to what has already been so eloquently by others above. Dan was an absolute gem. No pretense. He called wines as he saw them. I came realize over the years that if I was in the shop and Dan recommended something, I would buy it and always be happy. He was the one who introduced me to Cayuse in late 90s/early 2000s. I was heading to Walla Walla and asked him if there was anything special I should try. He said there was this crazy French guy who was doing interesting things with Rhone varietals I should try.
He was a very kind and gentle soul, and I am sorry to hear that he has left us so soon.,
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Such a loss for the Seattle wine community.
Before I moved up here when I was still working in Napa Valley, I reached out to Seattle native and my old boss from Cain Vineyard, Chris Howell, to ask what he knew about the local wine industry in Woodinville, WA. Chris suggested I meet Dan McCarthy so I popped into his shop on a Saturday in 2005 and the rest is history.
Years later I was lucky enough to be an alternate in his tasting group where I was introduced to the deliciousness and tremendous value of dry minerally Loire Valley Chenin blancs from Chidaine and Huet. An inspiring tasting for sure. He also helped me coordinate life-changing winery visits in Chianti Classico through his friend Francesco Bonfio in Siena.
It is an honor that he carried my Orr wines in the shop from my first vintage - I feel like he was a real advocate for my brand.
Let’s toast to Dan, everybody 
Cheers,
Erica
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Sparked a memory, Dan and I used to chuckle over his Cayuse mantra…“drink 'em young or store 'em cold.”
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