Job: Director of Winemaking (High-Volume Brands)

Company Description

Our client is a leading Canadian wine producer with national operations, multiple wineries and a major commercial facility in the Niagara region. The portfolio includes large scale domestic and international blends, Charmat method sparkling wines and adjacent categories such as ciders and seltzers.

The company is in the middle of a cultural and operational transformation, with a strong focus on continuous improvement, cost efficiency and consistent quality across high volume brands.

Objective of the Role

The Director of Winemaking leads all commercial winemaking and cellar operations for the Ontario winery, handling very significant tonnage and storage capacity.

The role’s objective is to deliver quality, cost effective wines at scale that meet brand and market expectations, while driving operational discipline, process improvement and culture change within the winemaking and cellar teams. The Director partners closely with Supply Chain and Operations, and collaborates with estate winemaking where alignment is needed, though the core remit is volume oriented wines.

Ideal Profile

• Senior winemaker, or ready step up, from a large scale winery handling complex, multi brand portfolios.
• Deep experience in high volume winemaking, tank farm management and continuous production cycles, ideally including Charmat sparkling and domestic/international blends.
• Strong continuous improvement mindset, focused on cost per liter, yields, waste reduction and labor productivity.
• Proven people leader, able to develop winemakers and cellar teams and lead culture change, ideally within a unionized environment.
• Strategic and collaborative, comfortable working with marketing, operations and finance, and contributing to broader business initiatives.

A degree in oenology, viticulture, food science or related field is expected, plus substantial practical winery experience. International candidates open to relocating to Niagara will be considered.

Key Responsibilities

Winemaking and Operations

• Lead all aspects of winemaking for the Ontario winery, from grape intake and blending to cellar management and final quality sign off.
• Oversee production of still and sparkling wines and other categories, ensuring consistency with brand standards and positioning.
• Optimize use of cellar assets and storage capacity across the annual production cycle.

Continuous Improvement and Cost Management

• Drive initiatives that improve yields, reduce waste and lower cost per liter.
• Partner with Operations and Finance to understand cost drivers and make informed trade offs between cost and quality.
• Standardize procedures, metrics and reporting to increase predictability and control.

Team Leadership and Culture

• Lead and develop a salaried team of winemakers, assistants and supervisory roles, and indirectly oversee a sizable unionized hourly workforce.
• Champion safety and compliance, embedding best practices across winemaking and cellar operations.
• Strengthen collaboration between winemaking, cellar, maintenance, packaging, planning and marketing.

Cross Functional Collaboration

• Align with estate winemaking on tastings, vintage assessments and overall portfolio coherence where relevant.
• Work with marketing and commercial teams to translate brand and pricing strategies into winemaking and blending decisions.

Requirements

• Typically 8+ years in winemaking roles within large scale wineries, including leadership over significant volumes and complex cellars.
• Demonstrated success as a senior or commercial winemaker leading teams and projects.
• Strong track record in continuous improvement and cost optimization within winery or beverage production.
• Experience with Charmat sparkling and both red and white still wines is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with unionized production or cellar teams is an advantage.
• Strong leadership, communication and data driven decision making skills, with comfort using operational and financial KPIs.
• Degree in oenology, viticulture, food science, chemistry or related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Willingness to relocate to the Niagara region and travel occasionally within Canada.