Morgan Winery is a family-owned winery with a focus on Santa Lucia Highlands pinot noir and chardonnay.
The Assistant Winemaker’s responsibility includes primarily lab work, record keeping, coordination and supervision of winemaking activities. The position also offers a key role in the entire grape growing and winemaking process at Morgan. The Assistant Winemaker reports directly to the Winemaker/Owner and supervises the Cellar Master and Cellar Team.
This is a full-time position: base hours are Monday - Thursday 7am - 5pm. Work schedules alternate to five 8-hour days during harvest (6-10 weeks/year), during which overtime and weekend hours are common. Employment benefits include paid time off, health insurance (medical, dental, vision), and 401K with company match.
Duties include:
- Communicate daily work orders to Cellar Team, and work with Cellar Master to ensure job completion as well as adherence to quality and safety standards
- Perform all lab analyses
- Perform fining and blending trials, and participate in organoleptic and chemical analysis
- Maintain accurate and timely winemaking records in Winemaker’s Database
- Maintain written safety and sanitation plans, and coordinate required staff training
- Oversee scale certification, fruit weighing and required reporting
- When needed, participate in cellar operations including all functions from grape receiving to bottling
- Work with Winemaker and Cellar Master to coordinate cellar operations, and propose diversions to plan when circumstances warrant such action
- Deal with vendors to procure harvest, winemaking and bottling supplies
- Assist with scheduling of contract bottling services
- Manage barrel inventory and oversee yearly used barrel sales per harvest needs
- Regularly perform inventory of supplies – winemaking, bottling and shipping materials as well as cased goods inventory
- Responsible for Cellar Master and Cellar Team supervision including time management and performance reviews
- Assist in Cellar Team hiring, including harvest interns
Key Requirements:
-Two years previous laboratory and cellar experience
- Ability to perform basic wet chemistry and enzymatic analyses
- Basic understanding of full winemaking process
- Good sensory ability and knowledge of wine flaws and attributes
- Strong verbal, written, computational and organization skills
- Current CA driver’s license and forklift certification
- Positive attitude and ability to work both autonomously and in a team environment
- Strong work ethic – sense of urgency to complete tasks in a timely manner, attention to detail, meticulous about lab and work area cleanliness
Desired Abilities:
- Experience with Winemaker’s Database or similar computer program(s) for wine production
- Degree in a life science, and keen interest in its application to viticulture and enology
- Production management experience
- Mechanical skills
- Spanish speaker
- Qualified Applicator Certificate or License
Interested? Send in your resume as a PDF or word attachment as an email response to this ad. Tell us briefly about yourself and why you would be a good fit for this position.