Good Morning!

You may or may not know this about me but before I started making wine, I was an executive recruiter for 15 years. Actually, I started my first wine kit in the basement during my first year of being a recruiter. I was a mechanical engineer and worked as a designer of products before I started recruiting engineers, it’s a long story for a whole different kinda blog, but my main focus daily was to find awesome manufacturing talent, solid corporations to put their skills to use.

So when one of my old recruiting pals ask me about the wine industry and how is it holding up during these economical times. I have to say, the wine industry is really unique and so are the people in the industry. The great thing about the wine world is it is selling more wine than ever and many. many people make a really great living and support their families and their personal goals as well.

Wine is like any other industry it is split into many different areas but the three basic areas are Production, Sales and Management. Then we can dissect the positions into these categories.

Production: This would include grape growers/farmers, winemakers and all the supporting others who have their hands in on the action, like transportation, barrel makers, bin makers, cork producers, bottle manufacturing, labels, capsules etc….( and not to bore ya with details all the regulators who watch over shipping, taxes, state to state regulations), you can see where this is going.

Sales: You have everything from small producing winemakers doing all their own sales and marketing and delivery to Massive sales teams who rep many wines under one company and they cover regions of the country, you have the folks you see giving out samples in the stores, they folks heading up winemaker’s dinners in high end restaurants and you have folks who are on the other side as buyers for small wine shops all the way up to corporate purchasing for the massive warehouse stores.

Management: Well, you guessed it, someone has to wrangle all these aspects together and management is there to do that. Of course every company has to have a vision, goals and has to honestly make a profit. Wine is like a very highly regulated beverage and it is not cheap to make. Wine shipping costs a lot and has to be watched over with a microscope.

To get back to the wine industry jobs situation, I constantly see openings for the entry level jobs in sales and as a rep for a brand. You have to be 21, no DWI and be a skillful communicator, it does not pay much but once you get some experience under your belt, doors open up.
I also, see many, many openings for a Brand Manager, which is really a sales and rep position, just at a higher level and they like the candidates to have some experience in marketing or public relations. (They like a background in project management exp too.).

Cellar help and harvest intern positions are seasonal so you see many of these job opportunities at the right times of the year. Many of these folks work 3-5 months a year in the northern hemisphere and then they head to the southern hemisphere to work the other harvest, remembering the growing seasons are opposite. (I think this would be the best thing ever, I have worked harvests in the US and Chile) These positions will not make you rich but the travel, experience and cultural experience is priceless.

The production positions are fewer and further apart, because like any other industry, if a producer is looking for someone, they all network like crazy to find a candidate they will love.

Sommelier’s, Wine Specialists, Wine Educators and Critics I have never seen any openings for those types of positions, but I have never even looked for these positions.

Winemakers are normally are word of mouth openings, if they hear you have made great wines, they will seek you out to an open position. Many winemakers are able to work for several companies each year, they work as consultants and many of them have a rep at the cellar to do the hands-on work if they work for several wineries.

To sum up my ramblings about the wine industry job market, it is solid, not strong, but if you want to break into the industry, you will start at the bottom and not make a lot, but you can move up. If you have worked for a winery and done a great job, your reputation will help you network to find the next position.

Finding a job in the wine industry is just like any other industry, you have to commit to the search and meet the right people!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi