To celebrate Labor Day, here’s a look at the wine professions.
Beyond its importance in the culture in some countries, it is a dynamic and important economic sector all over the world. In France for example, wine is the 2nd largest export sector after aeronautics. The wine industry employs more than 2 million people in France, including 500,000 direct and indirect jobs. And offers are constantly increasing.
Production
There are many jobs related to wine production. Indeed, the process itself requires the intervention of many professionals, from the selection of grape varieties to the labeling of the bottles, including of course the farming.
Winegrower
He is the guardian of the vineyard. He works exclusively in the vineyard and cultivates the grapes. This job requires knowledge of planting, wellness, vine growth and grape harvesting. His goal is to cultivate and produce the best grapes possible so that they can be transformed into quality wine.
Oenologist
Thanks to his scientific and technical knowledge, he guides, supervises and is involved in the entire process of making wines and products derived from grapes, right up to the bottling stage. His main activity concerns the vinification. He or she optimizes all the stages of wine production. The oenologist may hold research and consulting positions. He or she works in institutes, laboratories, cooperatives, wineries, teaching, etc.
Winemaker
He carries out the whole process, from the cultivation of the vine to the marketing of the wine he produces, including the vinification of the harvested grapes. We tend to use the terms winegrower and winemaker without real distinction. But as we have seen, they are not exactly the same profession.
There are other professions related to wine production, such as the cellar master, the cooper, etc.
The commercial professions
There are those who make wine, and those whose objective is to sell it. Merchants, representatives, traders, salesmen, wine sellers… their goal is to promote and sell the products of the wineries to customers such as restaurants, hotels, and even export them abroad.
Sommelier
He is the specialist of wines and alcoholic drinks. We find sommeliers rather in luxury establishments. But the profession tends to be “democratized”. More and more establishments are calling on a sommelier, given the importance of wine sales in the restaurant business. The sommelier advises and serves the wines. He presents the wine list to customers and advises them on which wines are best suited to the food ordered, ensures that the wine is at the right temperature/good aeration, or make sure that it is.
In addition to that, he chooses and orders wines, manages the stocks and takes care of the cellar.
Related professions, and the new wine professions
If there is one indicator that proves that wine is still a dynamic industry, it is the number of startups specialized in the field that emerge every year. Whether it’s online sales platforms, auction sites, or wine-related innovations, their number has exploded in recent years. Like Aveine, a large number of startups gathered in the Winetech association are seeking to modernize this field by proposing innovations that improve conservation, tasting or sales. And to talk about it, they call upon communication agencies or influencers specialized in wine.
As in any other field, there are other specialized professions in the wine industry. Lawyers, journalists, wine tourism professionals, men and women, whatever their profession, all these professionals did not choose the wine field by chance, but by passion.
