Vineyard Estate Manager (Wine Jobs: Vineyards & Cellars )

Full Time

  Henners Ltd (http://www.hennersvineyard.co.uk)

  East Sussex, England

Our goal at Henners is to be the Number One English sparkling wine brand Internationally. This is a tough goal, but we are focused on this outcome and as such we are planning vineyard and winery facilities which will enable us to increase significantly our production capacity whilst focusing on quality and proper brand management.

We can only do this with an Estate Manager who is comfortable with leading a business through change, who takes ownership and responsibility, is at ease with decisions that need making and the commercials of running and improving our business. Yet at the same time will be absolutely hands on, rolling their sleeves up to get the job done as part of a team.

This role is key to the changes we are implementing in our business and to the successful achievement of our goal.  As such we will need someone who can absolutely hand on heart nail the following and share our passion and commitment along the way: -

VINEYARD RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • You will have demonstrable experience in all aspects of vineyard management with finely tuned organisation skills and with sole responsibility to anticipate and preplan the programmes required to ensure we are guaranteed the best crops for each vintage.
  • You are able to both personally do and teach all the vineyard tasks, whilst also organising them to be executed with your team or extra resources.  Within this area, an indepth knowledge and practical application around a solid spraying programme that you will initiate,  and demonstrable pruning skills are of paramount importance.
  • You are willing to manage additional vineyards in different locations where we plan to source grapes.
  • You have the skills to work on a project to grow our current property by either planting new vines or developing a brand-new vineyard.
  • You have working knowledge of tractors and viticulture equipment.
  • With a good hands on knowledge of best equipment for each task, you will take sole ownership of ensuring that purchases are made cost effectively and correctly around the machinery we will require. On-going maintenance programmes of equipment will be paramount but the ability to understand the cost effectiveness of being able to handle smaller tasks in house will be equally as important.

WINE RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • You have relevant experience in organising a crop and piloting vinification to produce sparkling wines.
  • You know how to “juggle” in a winery between the various grapes, wines, blends …. Always capable of finding solutions rather than presenting problems.
  • You have the skills to anticipate the needs of the vineyard throughout the year and will formulate a comprehensive programme of vinification depending on the specificities of the vintage.
  • You can operate a press and work to adjust and improve this to reflect the variances of each vintage, ensuring we get the best out of our grapes.
  • You will question current practices continually looking to experiment, improve and propose new solutions.
  • You have already been working with barrels and fermenting in barrels.
  • You have very precise tasting skills, blending skills.
  • You know most of the winemaking oenological treatments needed within the specifics of English wines.
  • You are confident in the use of a keiselghur filter.
  • You have the knowledge and willingness to do extra sourcing around wines from other areas of the country.

BOTTLING/DISGORGING/LABELLING RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • You are capable of organising all jobs around the bottling, disgorgement, dosage, labelling. Either with our own equipment or with that of suppliers
  • You can anticipate needs and coordinate factors around the wines, dry goods, and logistics.
  • You have knowledge of the suppliers and can order all the dry goods needed.
  • You have skills around labelling and existing constraints concerning bottles and paper.
  • You are capable of coordinating the production of the wines against a forecast and current sales of the business.

PERSONAL SKILLS:

  • Excellent communicator both verbally and written
  • Able to effectively help the sales force by being a natural story teller who through energy creates a credence and brings to life the wines you produce both verbally and in written copy.
  • A comfortable people person who enjoys receiving customers and sharing with them the magic of the vineyard (our home), the wines and the property projects as they unfold.
  • In a position to organise events and create something that is extra special on each occasion in order to make these visits brilliant.
  • You will take ownership of building the current footprint of Henners including the extension to our winery and feel comfortable in researching and then driving forward future projects which will ensure our goal is achieved.
  • You will have the commercial acumen to be able to read and interpret sales and forecast information in order to produce wines in response to the demands of the business.
  • You will be able to see where improvements can be made within the business and with the ability to produce budgets and make proposals around these.
  • You can extend the length of the days when needed and have the extra flexibility needed during the harvest.
  • You are able to travel during the week to the different sites with whom we deal currently and more extensively as our sourcing expands.
  • You are ready and able to travel as and when required to other countries where we either have wine growing operations or bulk sourcing interests.

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