Harvest Cellar Hand - (Intern Contract) - Inniskillin

As Canada’s original estate winery, we're an industry pioneer committed to the production of premium wines made from quality grapes grown in Canada for over 40 years. With wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, we're leading the way with our full collection of world renowned, award-winning VQA table wines and Icewines crafted by progressive, artisanal winemakers. We are currently recruiting Cellar Intern/Lab Intern (6 positions)

Start date: Beginning of September 2023 thru to November 2023

Duties/Responsibilities

• Questions- We encourage anyone to ask questions, you will be working alongside some experienced people, we want you to gain something out of it. No question is too silly, we will always answer.
• Pump overs /pulse air – We maintain a daily cap management sheet, we use a pulse air system for that majority of our reds, manual pump over, automatic punchdown tanks, rotating fermenters and manual punchdowns in bins.
• Barrel work – You could be involved in barrel maintenance, sulphur, cleaning, rehydrating, filling and storing of red/white barrels. We still manage quite a large barrel room. Could be involved in receiving/ preparing new barrels for production.
• Daily fermentation checks - you will be involved in checking tank temps, barrel ferment checks, red fermenters and bins and reporting to the winemaking team any issues and concerns.
• Inoculations- You will be ask to aid in or complete inoculations with proper training and guidance from our staff.
• Cleaning – Cleaning is a huge part of making great wine!! We strive to keep everything as clean as possible always. You will be trained in cleaning various sized tanks, totes, bins, crushing equipment, barrels, and floors.
• Crushing and Receiving grapes- we average 1200 tons a year. You will see medium scale grape receiving and processing, running the crusher/de-stemmer and receiving hopper.
• Additions- will be a huge task, you will gain experience with multiple types of additions for juice, must, ferments and possibly finished wines.

Eligibility Requirements

• Driver’s license, and own transportation required
• Forklift license an asset
• Need to be punctual, organized, willing to go above and beyond
• Good communication skills and ability to work with a team
• Highly motivated to work hard, enthusiastic and passionate about wine
• Fluent in English, 2nd language is an asset.
• Any lab skills are an asset
• Willing to learn basic winemaking techniques and procedures

Other Considerations

Some competitive advantages of this winery or important details to note

• Juclas ceramic disk lees filter 10m2 unit
• Large 8 membrane crossflow filter
• We have a few pieces of newer wine technology student will get to see and possibly trained on.

Compensation Information: (this can be contingent on applicant’s experience)

• Harvest pay will depend on experience the cellars, we are willing to train but all candidates from Niagara college should have a general understanding of equipment and cellar procedures from volunteering in the teaching winery.
• Harvest schedule – we run a split shift during the harvest, Days and Afternoons, shifts will be 8-10 hours depending on work load that day. We do pay overtime after 44 hours

We are committed to establishing a qualified workforce that reflects the diverse population it serves and we encourage applications from all qualified individuals. We are also committed to preventing and removing barriers to employment for people with disabilities, and we invite you to inform us should you have any accessibility or accommodation needs.