Enologist Interview Preparation Guide

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Talk to other vineyards about the availability of vineyard workers. While grapes will grow in most climate zones in the United States, the types of grapes grown for wine, eating or juices are have a much more limited growing area. Before planting any commercial vineyard, consult an expert in viticulture in your area.

In a wide spacing of 566 vines per acre one would ask each vine to ripen 44 clusters (11 pounds) to achieve a 3.1 ton yield per acre. However, in a dense spacing of 2,723 vines per acre you would ask each vine to ripen only 9 fruit clusters to achieve the same yield per acre.

Wine grapes are grown outdoors, in a warm, sheltered, sunny site, such as a south- or southwest-facing wall or fence. Grapevines grow on any soil, providing it is well drained. When planting a row of vines, a south-facing slope is desirable with the rows running north to south.

Winemaking or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruits or plants.

I'm looking for wines that taste good. That's obvious, but I am looking for that. I'm also looking for wines that are in balance. I want some wines to be ready to drink right away and others that can be laid down to age for awhile. I'm looking for the parameters and ingredients that can create that process and scenario.

As a Viticulturist, you're in the business of growing grapes. The art of grape growing is part science and part intuition, commonly known as “trusting your gut.” With your knowledge and skills, you grow grape vines that produce large quantities of juicy, mouth-watering grapes.

Wine grapes in India are harvested during February-April, versus September-October elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, in this sense we are like the industry “down under” (the southern Hemisphere — Australia, South Africa, South America) where, too, the 2013 harvest is currently going on.

Plant Pathology is defined as the study of the organisms and environmental conditions that cause disease in plants, the mechanisms by which this occurs, the interactions between these causal agents and the plant, and the methods of managing or controlling plant disease.

Throughout my career the wineries I've worked at have been mostly Cabernet oriented wineries and I've made a lot of really good Cabernet. When I make a reserve style Cabernet from a great vintage and it turns out just right, I'm really proud of that. But what I like the most is when I make a really good Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is a tricky wine to make and I probably drink more of it than any other kind.

Most grapevines give you fruit in their third season. Your backyard grapevine can take up to three years to produce viable grapes, but that timeline is based on several environmental factors as well as how you care for the plant. Sunlight and well-drained soil are key to grape production, as is proper pruning.

Enologist Salaries. As of 2011, wine industry magazine Wine Business Monthly reports that workers with the specific title of enologist earned average salaries of $51,000 to $55,000 per year. Median salaries for enologists working at most wineries were around $50,000 per year.

Writers always ask this question. My approach is probably the same as many other winemakers in the world. I work with the grapes I’m given (blessed with) and guide them along the journey into the bottle. I want the wine to stay true to it’s origin. I’m not making a “Napa Cab” or a white Burgundy. I’m making a Colorado Cab and Chardonnay. I want the wine to be an expression of the grapes origin.

Nomological network is a representation of the concepts (constructs) of interest in a study, their observable manifestations, and the interrelationships among and between these. The term "nomology" has been derived from the Greek, meaning "lawful", or in philosophy of science terms, "lawlike".

Being an enologist does not necessarily indicate that that individual is also the winemaker. In the book, “How to Launch Your Wine Career,” the authors explain the two arms associated with wine production in California: the winemaker and the enologist. For a head winemaker position, one typically has to work up the ladder from assistant winemaker, and may find themselves in several assistant winemaker positions prior to holding a head winemaker position. The enologist position develops through a different ladder within the winery: from a crush (or harvest) intern to a cellar worker to a lab assistant and finally a cellar master before reaching the enologist position. Note that this development may not always be the case in smaller, commercial wineries.

Depending on the size of the winery, vineyard managers reported average salaries of between $81,000 and $89,000 in 2011. The highest average salary, $88,279 per year, was reported by vineyard managers working for very large wineries that produce 500,000 or more cases of wine per year.

Total area under grapes in India is about 40,000 ha, distributed mainly in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Economic importance: At present, grape is the most important fruit crop grown commercially with the objectives.

Winemakers will earn average salary of $95,263 this year, according to a salary survey of the wine industry conducted by Wine business. More senior winemakers (who supervised other winemakers) will earn an average of $121,774.

It all has to do with weather. Once the grapes are planted in a vineyard and grow up on their trellises, if the same farmer grows them, really the only thing that changes from year to year is the weather. When I say the weather, it's from when the grapes start growing, which is usually around mid-March, to the time they're picked in September and October. If the weather throughout that period is ideal, if it's not too extreme during the growing process - too cold or hot, too rainy or dry, too windy - it's going to be a good vintage.

After harvest, once the wines ferment, the whites are either in stainless steel tanks or in barrels. The wine that's made in tanks ages for three to five months and then it gets bottled. After fermentation, the white that is in barrels, which is mostly chardonnay, gets aged from about seven to ten months before it is bottled. The red wines, right after fermentation, go into barrels. If it is a light red, like a Pinot Noir, it might get bottled as soon as just before the next harvest. If it's a bigger, heavier wine like Cabernet it stays in the barrel for about two years.

Well the obvious is that it expresses a place. But it also can express the artist’s hand. I’ve always considered myself a fish out of water in the so called Metal Music scene. I’ve always been more into The Byrds, Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits. I think that shows in my wines. My wines are far more Pink Floyd than they are Metallica.

As a winemaker, the first thing I do during harvest is walk through vineyards where I know the grapes are starting to get close to ripeness. They are already delicious by that point but are not ready to be picked. I walk through a vineyard with a baggie and pick a random sample of the grapes, one berry at a time, until I have half a baggie full of grapes. In the meantime, as many grapes as I'm putting in the baggie, I'm eating to taste how ripe the grapes are. On any given day during harvest I eat hundreds of grapes.

At the winery, I squeeze the baggies of grapes and analyze the juice to see what the numbers say about the acidity and sweetness. I use those numbers as guidelines and when I'm in the range of the numbers I want, I spend the last few days in the vineyard just tasting grapes. When they taste right, it's time to pick them.

We pick the grapes on the day I feel they are ready. With white grapes, the first thing we do is get rid of the stems with a machine and then squeeze the grapes. We take just the white grape juice and it goes into either a tank or to a barrel. We then add yeast and start fermenting it.

With red grapes, again we take the stems away and this time we pump the grapes, skins and all into a tank. The juice of red grapes like Cabernet, Zinfandels and Pinot Noirs, is clear as water so we let the juice steep with the skins. With red grapes, it's the skins that have all the color and flavor. So the skins and juice steep together and then we add yeast to that and it ferments. When it's done fermenting, we drain the wine out of the tank and squeeze the grapes to get the last little bit of wine out. The harvest is pretty much over at that point. Of course there are a lot of little details in there but that's basically what we do.

In the vineyard. Taking large leaps early on in the growing process has helped shape our direction in the cellar. Going all in with a particular goal. We’ve found that half-assing it only leads to half a result. It starts long before pruning, but we’ll start there. Don’t fear the late spring frost. We train cordons to where we want to be as far as shoot positions. We prune to where we want to be. We shoot thin to where we want to be. We green harvest to where we want to be. Leaving extra stuff as back up confuses your vine.

I like that I get to work inside and outside and that on any day it might go either way or both. I like the smells of my job - the smells of the vineyards and of the winery. I like that there is science, craft and art all blended together. I like that throughout the year I do different things at different times. It's not the same thing every day. I like the lifestyle and I meet a lot of interesting people. Ultimately, at the end of the year, I like that I have something tangible to show for what I did all year. Even after we sell the wine I can still watch it as it ages, I'm still in touch with it.

Planting:
☛ Plant dormant, bare-root grape vines in the early spring.
☛ Construct a trellis or arbor before planting. ...
☛ Most grape varieties are self-fertile. ...
☛ Before planting grapevines, soak their roots in water for two or three hours.
☛ Select a site with full sun. ...
☛ Space vines 6 to 10 feet apart (16 feet for muscadines).

While “viticulture” refers to the science, study and production of grapes, “viniculture” refers to the same thing, but for grapes specifically for wine. I think that the terms are used somewhat interchangeably—many schools have degrees in viticulture that are specifically geared toward wine grape production.