The winegrower

He is in charge of mastering everything related to wine growing and grape transformation. Master in his domain, he has to take the good decisions. For that, he is assisted by wine workers and a cellar worker.
A vine represents a real investment, all the more hazardous as it only becomes productive after several years, and as investments related to modernisation can be heavy.
In any case, the winegrower knows that his success depends above all on the improvement of quality.
All in all the winegrower shares out his time between vine farming, wine making, management of his co-workers, and the market. His activity varies according to the size of the domaine, and is organised differently whether he produces and blends the wine himself or whether he entrusts these tasks to a cooperative. Likewise, he can sell his production himself or entrust the marketing to somebody else.
The winegrower must choose the wines, which will be sold in the year and those which will have to age a bit more.

The wine workman

The vineyard receives constant care and the wine worker is the man with practical experience, a vine specialist: he plants, farms the soil, prunes, disbuds, thins the leaves, diagnoses the diseases, and treats the young vines against parasites. Obviously, he takes part in harvests and must forecast the weather to avoid bad crops. The job is very physical and requires being resistant to weather conditions.
Indeed, the objective is to produce whithin the quantities authorised by the regulation, and so that every grape should be composed of all components (sugar, acidity, etc.) in balanced quantities. The wine's quality depends mostly on this balance. The wine worker is involved every day in improving constantly the quality of the wine.
He also carries out the maintenance of equipment and installations.

The cellar worker

He's called "the pale face of winegrowing". In the shade of the vats, he monitors the transformation of grapes into wine. He intervenes as soon as the grapes are brought into the vat house up to bottling. His role is to make sure that the wine making , i.e. the transformation of the grape juice into wine, occurs in the best possible conditions. The cellar worker's activities are very diversified: extract the juice , filter, carefully observe the maceration, control the temperature and the density, choose the time of maturation in barrels, organise and manage the stocks, taste the wine throughout the process, adapt his work to the expected results, maintain the equipment. He also takes part in bottling and labelling the bottles.
In big cooperatives or big vine owners, he works on the order of a cellar master and sometimes according to advice of an oenologist.

The oenologist

Etymologically, oenology means the science of wine. This definition makes straightaway of this professional a true specialist of the field. He must be at the same time a very good technician but also an excellent taster. He is involved at the very beginning of the production process: he advises on the choice of grape varieties, on the methods of plantation, on the treatments, pruning, and he analyses the grapes.
He is also in charge of controlling the work in the cellar, he controls fermentation, evaluates the level of maturation of the wine by making physicochemical and sensory analyses, prescribes the necessary treatments to it.
But his role can go much further in the process, he can advise on the most appropriate method of bottling, in a context where the standards of health safety are more and more restrictive. Generally, the permanent search to improve the wine quality gives the oenologist the position of privileged representative in the trade.

The cellarer

This expert in sensory analysis of wine (colour, aromas, taste)makes use of his talents principally in restaurants. Every great restaurant has its own cellarer. However, some delicatessens and, recently, department stores have developed an interest in his skills.
His palate is his main work instrument. But he must also have a very good knowledge of the wine geography and the tastes specific to each vineyard to really appreciate the quality of a wine. He has thus at his disposal an essential expertise to create a wine list. Indeed, depending on the size of the restaurant, in addition to advice and service, he can be given the responsibility for the whole cellar, including purchasing.
He helps the clientele to choose the perfect wine for each meal and serves it.
There are about 1000 cellarers in France.