Winemaker

Position Summary:

The Winemaker is responsible for the production and promotion of the Federalist brand wines made at Rutherford Hill and at third party locations working in close partnership with the VP of Supply, Marketing and Sales teams establishing and executing the strategic vision and direction for the wines and brands. The winemaker will be the face of Federalist wines communicating and advocating the brand philosophy to internal and external stakeholders including, but not limited to consumers, trade, media, club members, employees, and critics.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Dynamically represent and support the Federalist brand in the commercial market in partnership with Marketing and Sales.
• Collaborate with the Sales team to educate sales force and staff, respectively, about the qualities, attributes, and unique characteristics of the wines.
• Represent the winery with media, trade, and consumers as the face of the brand. Work with Marketing on Public Relations campaigns.
• Partner with Marketing to define brand standards and expectations for quality, style, packaging, price-points, and product mix.
• Travel as needed to support specific market activities related to brand promotion, distributor meetings, trade events, winemaker dinners and market work with the sales force.
• Application of the best in winemaking technology and technique in creation of high quality, premium wines.
• Tracking bulk wine inventory and ensuring compliance with all relevant regulations and permits.
• Active participation in monthly planning sessions, and related inventory and cost management activities.
• Supervising the crushing of grapes and managing fermentations determining the appropriate ageing process and overseeing the maturation of wines.
• Demonstrate initiative in leveraging cost and quality improvements.
• Manage inventory levels of supplies and materials used in the production of wine.
• Maintain records as required for the purpose of meeting government and internal compliance requirements.
• Develop and maintain strong and collaborative relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Assist in the development of the product mix and grape needs for coming season.
• Work in close partnership with the VP of Wine and Spirits Operations, supply chain, marketing, and commercial sales groups to project the desired product mix based on the past years sales.
• Working with the VP of Wine and Spirits Supply Operations look at continually improving winemaking and production to adapt style to changing market conditions and ensure a very competitive product.
• Collaborate with the RH winemaking and supply chain teams to plan blends to meet the projections of the sales group.
• Actively manage the relationship with 3rd party wineries to make, store and bottle multiple skus

Employee Management and Leadership Responsibilities:

• Co-manage the Production Manager at RH
• Collaborate with the Supply Director & RH Winemaker and GM to create a sound bottling plan at RH and keep the team always engaged.
• Actively engage with the Marketing group to work through important business opportunities and changes.
• Apply strong business acumen and project management skills in driving change initiatives.
• Manage with a positive intent mindset at all times.

Function expertise: Strong knowledge, understanding and application in functional area.

• Productivity

1. Able to identify the KPIs relevant to processes and their correlation to the business objectives.
2. Aware of the current state of each KPI relevant to their area. Project definition, monitoring, and control.
3. Standardize operation procedures by measuring the work and defining process and plans.
4. Troubleshooting, applying RCPS (root cause problem solving) tools.

• Quality

1. Good understanding of the process involved in producing high quality wines.
2. Good understanding of the impact of different aids and additives to create commercially successful wines.

• Sustainability

1. Ability to make the business case for environmental sustainability.
2. Challenges unsustainable practices in a productive way.
3. Can translate environmental risks into local action.

Required Qualifications and experience:

• Ten+ years of recognized high-quality winemaking experience
• Bachelor of Science in Enology or related field
• Advanced understanding of the process involved in producing high quality grapes and wines.
• Comfortable experimenting and launching trials to create improvements in wine quality.
• Honesty, integrity, tenacity, and resourcefulness

• Growth Mindset and Positive outlook. The successful candidate will possess a positive outlook - one which allows the person to be confident, humble, open-minded and solution driven.