Assistant Winemaker
(Wine Jobs:
Vineyards & Cellars )
Full Time
Malagash,
Nova Scotia
The Winery: Jost Vineyards, located on the beautiful Northumberland Strait, about a 2-hour drive from Halifax and about 2.5 hours from the Annapolis Valley, is the largest and longest continually operating winery in Nova Scotia. The winemaking team is led by Gina Haverstock, the 2024 recipient of the Karl Kaiser winemaker of the year award. The onsite winemaker, Dave Beardsall, has over 30 years’ experience in the Nova Scotia wine industry and oversees the day-to-day operations of the cellar. Jost Vineyards processes fruit from its 120 acres of estate vineyards and 200 acres of contracted vineyards (approximately 750T of grapes per year). The most common varieties grown are L’Acadie Blanc, Marquette, Vidal, Seyval, Leon Millot, Muscat and Riesling. In addition, we package wines to support our international wine brands. Jost has the capacity to bottle, can and Bag-in-box wines.
The Opportunity: We are currently recruiting an assistant winemaker to support our winemaking team at Jost Vineyards, North Shore (formerly Malagash), Nova Scotia. This is an excellent opportunity for someone with experience working in a wine cellar and is interested in the Nova Scotia wine industry. An assistant winemaker is responsible for performing and overseeing winemaking tasks that includes pumping and filtering wine, performing tank additions and barrel work as well as sanitizing tanks, hoses and other general cleaning. The assistant winemaker (AWM) will take overall direction from the winemaking team/winemaker on site and supervise a small team of cellar workers. The AWM will work in a safe and efficient manner as per our SOPS and distribute work assignments in the form of work orders in a logical and effective manner, ensure SOPs are being followed and ensure the tasks are accurately completed. The development of new SOPs will be an ongoing part of the job. This position is a full-time, year-round, permanent position.
Requirements: The successful candidate will have experience working in a wine cellar and experience managing a small team. A strong interest in wine and the ability to perform all cellar tasks in an efficient and safe manner is essential. This is an in-person, ‘boots on the ground’ job so a desire to live in rural Nova Scotia is necessary.
Qualifications:
• Highly motivated and have a strong work ethic.
• Able to multitask and can lead a team and work well in a team.
• Motivated and passionate about making high quality wine.
• Able to perform physical-demanding work on a regular basis.
• Able to lift 50 lbs. and are able to work at heights.
• Willing to work long hours, may include weekends, often>60 hours/week during harvest.
• Supervisory experience is an asset
• WHMIS training, a forklift certificate and confined space training are assets but not mandatory- the successful candidate will be trained.
Job descriptions and responsibilities:
Daily/year-round tasks
• Ability to work within the standard operating
procedures established in our cellar, crush pad and bottling line (occasionally) and establish new SOPs as needed.
• Ability to organize the cellar team and follow printed work orders of cellar tasks accurately and complete in a time- effective manner.
• Ability to teach and mentor a team on best practices
• Clean/sanitize and sterilize winery equipment and tanks.
• Maintain an organized, clean and safe cellar environment.
• Perform wine movements such as racking with different types of pumps
• Filter wines with various types of filters (plate and frame, Cross flow, DE)
Harvest tasks
• Perform pump-overs/punch-downs, red fermentation tank dig outs and racking.
• Perform sugar and other additions to juice/wine
• Prepare yeast and inoculate juice
• Add nutrients to juice/fermenting tanks
How To Apply
~Individuals who are interested in this position are asked to email their resume with cover letter and references to:
[email protected]
