Director of Winemaking

The client seeks a Director of Winemaking to oversee all winemaking operations at a single site, working closely with internal teams and partners to select and support outside grower vineyards for specific programs. The role focuses on maintaining and improving wine quality across both external and estate vineyards, while coordinating effectively across grower relations and viticulture functions. The Director of Winemaking will be responsible for managing all winemaking activities at the site, including collaboration with each brand’s winemaker to ensure wines are produced to the desired winestyle. Key duties include managing winemakers and seasonal harvest interns, coordinating blending schedules to support timely bottling, overseeing quality management from internal and external vineyards through recurring meetings and feedback, and managing the winemaking budget in line with forecasts and business expectations. The position also includes managing relationships with suppliers such as coopers, overseeing annual maintenance activities related to oak tanks, coordinating routine wine analysis and tasting processes with the Quality department, ensuring labeling and packaging components meet compliance and quality specifications, and supporting wine tracking to ensure blends meet label compliance standards. The role supports continuous improvement in cellar and winemaking practices and will partner with relevant internal teams to plan winery upgrades and new equipment purchases. It also includes working with operations, marketing, wine education, PR, and production to align style with desired quality targets, and may include guest-facing and external engagement activities such as hosting trade and media, attending industry events, and supporting hospitality and visitor center updates and consumer events. The candidate is expected to have a degree in a relevant field and extensive luxury wine industry experience with strong leadership and communications skills, refined wine tasting capabilities, strong organizational ability, and proficiency in tools such as Excel and PowerPoint; preferred qualifications include proven luxury winemaking experience with a track record of high scoring wines. Confidential