Tasting Room Manager (Wine Jobs: Wine Retail & Sommelier)

  Priam Vineyards

  Colchester, Connecticut

Priam Vineyards is a successful and fast-growing winery that is looking for a Tasting Room Manager who is organized, people and sales oriented and motivated to help grow Connecticut’s Winery of the Year 2016/17. Gold Medal in Berlin Germany, Double Gold Best in Class out of 1,400 wines in Napa Valley.

This full-time position manages Priam’s tasting room operations, all wine sales, our fast-growing wine club and our fellow tasting room associates. We are one of the premier wineries in the state with world class wines, a beautiful environment, with a newly built indoor tasting room area that triples the space for our customers.

You are a detail oriented and very organized person who has great follow through and excellent customer service skills. You love and are knowledgeable of wine. You will be a key member of our team helping to shape the wines, build the business and create opportunities to enhance present customer experiences and attract new ones. You must be a self-starter, multi-tasker and hard worker able to carry 35-pound wine boxes up a flight of stairs.

Basically, we are looking for someone who wants to be both an individual contributor as well as manage a small fun group of part time tasting room staff. There are opportunities for additional responsibilities and growth for the right candidate including special events both inside and outside the tasting room. Duties of this position include maintaining day-to-day focus on tasting room sales goals, building our customer base and ensuring that all visitors to our Tasting Room enjoy a world-class experience.

Our retail hours are from 10am-6pm, Wednesday to Sunday. We are open 12 months a year and the tasting room is open 3-5 days a week depending on the season. Summer and Fall are the busiest seasons, with Winter being a quieter time post holidays.

We have recently added 1,500 square feet of retail space and two new bars, with an ability to add public and private events and parties to this space all year long.

GENERAL DUTIES :

• Increase sales of wines, wine tastings and club memberships.
• Opening/closing of winery tasting rooms and POS system.
• Manage, schedule and educate tasting room staff.
• Knowledge of our wines, vineyard and winery.
• Conducting tastings for winery guests with tasting staff.
• Develop and manage public events to increase sales and show customer appreciation.
• Wholesale sales and occasional fulfillment.
• Greet all guests and provide engaging and memorable tasting experiences.
• Learn and share our winery story and branding and the history of the CT wines.
• Housekeeping duties to maintain a clean and professional environment for our guests.
• Stock the tasting room and retail areas with wines and products.
• Manage and track inventory in conjunction with the winemaker.
• Full time 5 days a week, Wednesday to Sunday, including holidays with comp time provided.
• Must be able to stand for 8 hours and lift up to 35 pounds.
• Applicants must have a professional, polished appearance and attitude.

SKILLS & ABILITIES :

• Proficient at Excel, Word, Google docs.
• Must be reliable and inspire and manage tasting room staff.
• Team Player.
• Highly effective communication skills.
• Friendly, dynamic, genuinely enthusiastic about wine.
• Problem-solving skills and proven ability to think on your feet and ask questions.
• Detail oriented, multi-tasker and motivated.
• Ability to work in a fast paced environment with changing priorities with grace and enthusiasm.
• Wine sales driven and focus on brand strengthening through storytelling and creating positive experiences.
• Experience with point-of-sale systems, transactions, opening & closing procedures and customer information entry, sales tracking.
• Extend customer service at all times, answering questions, discussing products and general knowledge of the vineyard.
• Promote the site and encourage repeat visits to the tasting room.
• Efficiency in hosting multiple groups at the same time.
• Knowledge of social media, FB, Twitter, Instagram, Hootsuite and Constant Contact.

Exempt Employee – Base salary $29,000 plus commissions and tips of $11-13,000+ – Total compensation $42,000+ with ability to increase through commissions. One week paid vacation first year, two weeks second year. Paid holidays.