#Scribe winery harbest intern how to#
#Scribe winery harbest intern free#

As such, pay for seasonal harvest work should not be the main driving factor. Check out the Facebook group Traveling Winemakers: Living the dream for more details on this topic.ĭon’t expect to make much money: Winemaking costs are high and margins are thin. Just make sure to study the visa work laws for each region.

Looking abroad: Old world (Europe) wineries may be more difficult to contact online and my advice is to learn the language, travel there, and find a spot the old-fashioned way (before the days of e-mail).

Just understand that if you’ve never worked in wine before, you may not be at the top of the list for a winery looking for seasonal employees. Remember: every winery needs extra help during crush. Locate the contact info per the website and send a quick email introducing yourself and what you’d like to accomplish. Start: Reach out to friends who work at wineries or places that you’ve tasted at and love. Here are some more helpful tips for getting a harvest job: Hopefully you enjoyed the three, very different approaches to getting a harvest internship all which amounted to a priceless amount of hands-on learning and fundamental appreciation for winemaking. Useful tips for working a harvest at a winery Our current location as of early 2021, we’ve written a lot about this region and our experience working for a local producer. I still stay in touch with the vigneron et famille to this day and consider them my French family. I’ve never worked so hard with both my body and mind simultaneously it was a spiritual experience and I had never been happier up until that point in life. Waking up at the wine estate early, heading to the vines to pick, pausing for a cheese/wine/bread picnic, dashing back to the cellar for sorting, pumping, punching, testing, crushing, stirring, stacking, rolling, lifting, tasting, sweating and bleeding. Work wasn’t easy, and some days stretched upwards of 18 hours–but I was happy. The one “yes” was a small, family-run winery in southern Burgundy and became one of my greatest life experiences. And along the way, was able to taste some amazing wine. So, I made my way down the Cote d’Or and I received 99 “No’s”. “Non, Merci.” I could taste the wines, but there was no chance I was going to help make them. Hello, my name is Jesse and I would like to try your wine and work with you for harvest. Je voudrais degustar votre vin et travailler avec vous pour le vendage!”. The winemaker sauntered to the door and answered, “oui?” With Kermit Lynch’s Adventures on the Wine Route as my guide, I walked up to a highly rated maison de vigneron and knocked.

For tips on picking up new languages, I wrote a post about learning new languages fast.įirst stop on my trip was Chablis located on the northern end of Burgundy, known for their crisp, dry white wines. To work in France, one must parler français–after a few months of language practice, I was comfortable enough to get by in conversation. I didn’t see anything offered on WWOOF or Workaway, so I would just have to travel to the motherland of wine and find a cave to work at. I had tasted Pinot Noir before, but never like this! Having one harvest under my belt, I was ready to work somewhere where I really loved the wine.

Our guide to Margaret River, Australia Burgundy, FranceĪll it took was one sip and I was hooked. One of the highlights from this Aussie adventure was discovering a kangaroo munching on the grapes while on patrol with the Gator! This was a great introduction to the overall winemaking process and fueled my interest further. I happened to stay in February, so I was working on the vines, in the cellar and at the tasting room during the busiest time in the year for wineries.

#Scribe winery harbest intern free#

This is a great website that provides free housing for travelers in exchange for a small amount of hands-on work (usually gardening or farm related). I simply applied for housing on a wine farm in Victoria via a website called Workaway. While working remotely, I tasted wine all over the world and digested as many books, articles and wine-themed podcasts as I could get my hands on. Starting in 2017, somewhere between driving driving through the island of Tasmania, Australia and hiking the hillside of Rioja, Spain, I fell in love with wine I became obsessed with it. I’ll start by explaining how I was able to negotiate three harvest internships and later, provide some tips on doing this yourself.

#Scribe winery harbest intern how to#

Harvest season is approaching and a question I get often from non-wine industry friends is “how can I work at a winery for harvest”? If you want to experience the rush of crush and immerse yourself in the incredible experience of making wine without making a dramatic career shift, read on below discover what it’s like to work at a winery and how to get a harvest gig. Updated October 2021 How to get hired and work at a winery?