Assistant Winemaker (Wine Jobs: Vineyards & Cellars )

  Frind Estate Winery

  West Kelowna Bc Canada, West Coast

ASSISTANT WINEMAKER FOR FRIND ESTATE WINERY, WEST KELOWNA,  BC

Frind Estate Winery (opening soon) will be a quintessential stop on any wine tour of the Okanagan Valley.  It boasts a breathtaking lakefront location situated on the historic Bennett Property in West Kelowna.  The lakefront setting, undoubtedly, adds an extra layer of grandeur and will make Frind Estate Winery a novelty amongst other iconic wineries situated nearby.

Onsite construction will continue to be underway during the 2019 season and the final touches will be complete for the onset of 2020.  We welcome you to join us in the excitement of watching this prestigious winery develop.

Residents and visitors of the Okanagan can not only expect exceptional wine from Frind, but also a memorable experience guided by locals who are passionate about where they live and are enthusiastic about what Frind has to offer.  At Frind, guests will be warmly welcomed and always treated like Okanagan family.

The Assistant Winemaker  is an integral position of the winery operations, it will support all activities in the winemaking process, provide technical collaboration to ensure superior wine quality at all stages of wine production, including the research and development stage and the raw material stage.    

This position oversees day-to-day winery operations with an emphasis on wine quality, work planning, safety, sanitation, data management, and facility/equipment maintenance. Additional responsibilities include training and oversight of cellar employees and up-keep of various winemaking records, safety records/reporting, organic reporting forms and spreadsheets.  

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Participates in wine tasting to evaluate and make recommendations to improve wine quality. 
• Provides technical support to implement daily short-term wine work plans. 
• Participates in issue resolution surrounding logistical, quality and labour limitations. 
• Ensures daily production plans and quality parameters are met. 
• Manages wine process operations as assigned including but not limited to: management of                 wine temperature, sulfur dioxide and barrels. 
• Supports winegrowing, winemaking, brand winemaking and wine processing operations. 
• conducts fining and blending trials and oversees winemaking/wine processing trials and experiments as directed and reports results to Winemaker. 
• Participates in the grape receiving process and wine production operations during harvest. 
• Writes and reconciles winemaking work orders as necessary. 
• Executes special projects and other assignments related to production winemaking. 
• Contributes to continuous improvement of winemaking processes and procedures. 
• Executes Brand spokesperson duties as required. 
• Trains and mentors lab technicians and interns. 
• Maintains satisfactory attendance, to include timeliness. 
• Responsible for understanding and complying with applicable quality, environmental and safety regulatory considerations. 
• accountable for the work of others, responsible for ensuring their understanding and compliance. 
• This job description reflects management's assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Day-to-day (winemaking)
•Track all lots for winemaking recommendations, specialized considerations for wine work and analyses requests. Up-hold and refine winemaking, cellar, sanitation and lab procedures.
•Write work orders and oversee all harvest, bottling, and cellar activities. Daily, weekly and yearly work planning and ensures work is completed at a high level of quality and in a timely, organized and efficient manner.
•Coordinate winery safety program and Inventory and quality control of all bottling supplies.
• Review monthly samples of wine to ensure wines are aging appropriately, act to mitigate any spoilage
• With Winemaker, taste and blend lots to achieve appropriate stylistic and cost goals across all tiers and product lines
• Work with Winemaker to plan aging and processing steps required to meet bottling and shipping deadlines
• Ensure wines are treated appropriately to maintain compliance with label requirements (single vineyard status, varietal, vintage, appellation, var/app, and analysis thresholds)
• Responsible for ensuring the daily cellar tasks align with production and bottling goals, and that cellar tasks are prioritized appropriately
• Responsible for creating monthly top/so2 work-orders

• Work with winemaker and contractors to prioritize the repair of cellar equipment

• Oversee dry goods inventories and coordinate the re-order of these as needed

• Responsible for cellar cleanliness

• Create lot codes for barrels and wine additives, work with Oenologist to maintain accurate inventory of barrels and wine additives 
• In conjunction with the Winemaker, write  organic cellar standard operating procedures  as needed, and train cellar staff to maintain cellar worker skill sets
• Establish cellar metrics to measure the productivity of cellar operations, and determine opportunities to increase productivity

HARVEST:

• Oversee crushing operations to ensure grapes are received into appropriate tanks and that crushing paperwork is properly completed
• Work with shift leads to ensure staffing levels are appropriate for workload
• With Winemaker, evaluate pressed lots for quality and stylistic expression in order to create preliminary blends 
• Write addition work-orders so that fermentation lots achieve appropriate stylistic and analytical goals
• Taste fermentation tanks daily to assess health of fermentation

 QUALIFICATIONS:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.  The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and ability required.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

JOB QUALIFICATIONS: including educational and physical requirements:

•Bachelor of Science Degree (Enology degree preferred) with at least 5 years of experience including lab, cellar and management experience.
•Passion for wine and commitment to excellence and high standards.
•Ability to make educated, timely and sound winemaking decisions. Detail oriented, takes initiative and comfortable delegating tasks.
•Very strong organizing, planning, supervising, and problem solving skills. Able to multitask and manage changing priorities while maintaining a positive attitude.
•Excellent (English) verbal and written communication skills. Strong computer background with proficiency in Microsoft Office.

•Valid driver’s license and ability to drive a car.

•Excellent forklift skills.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in Enology, Fermentation Science, Food Science or Microbiology, plus organic or biodynamic enology, viticulture or winemaking experience. 
• Experience with numerous grape varieties. 
• Experience reading, analyzing and interpreting general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures or governmental regulations. 
• Experience writing reports, business correspondence and procedure manuals, please add fwaw in your communication regarding this add.
• Experience presenting information and responding to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers and the general public. 
• Experience with wine tracking software. 
• Skilled in the use of MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, MS PowerPoint at an intermediate level. 
• Skilled in applying mathematical operations to such tasks as frequency distribution, determination of test reliability and validity, analysis of variance, correlation techniques, sampling theory, and factor analysis. 
• Experience defining problems, collecting data, establishing facts and drawing valid conclusions. 
• Experience interpreting an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables. 
• Experience working under a variety of climatic conditions. 
• Experience following established procedures to perform tasks that are somewhat difficult in nature, requiring frequent evaluation, originality or ingenuity. 
• Knowledge of the organic and conventional viticulture practices associated with the most popular grape varieties. 
• Knowledge of the winemaking equipment, processes and procedures at assigned location. 
• Knowledge of fundamental concepts, practices and procedures of particular field of specialization. 

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

 PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/OTHER:

• Must be able to stand, walk, sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk and hear.
• Must be able to work indoors, outdoors, and in various temperature extremes
• Must be able to work long hours, and possibly weekends and holidays, especially during harvest season
• Ability to lift up to 60lbs regularly.

 WORK ENVIRONMENT: 

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally exposed to moving mechanical parts; high, precarious places; fumes or airborne particles; toxic or caustic chemicals; and outside weather conditions.  The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. 

Please send your resume to  [email protected]

---