Cellar Door Manager

winejobsonline.com; Otago; On-site; NZD 41,000 - 50,000; Part time

Job summary

Coxs' Vineyard in Gibbston, Otago, New Zealand, is seeking a Cellar Door Manager to join our small family-run team. The role is permanent and part-time, starting November 2026, with 3–4 days a week.

You'll host private tastings, manage bookings and shipping, and gradually take on marketing, trade sales and events. Time in the vineyard alongside our manager will build credibility and depth to the cellar door experience.

Qualifications

• Wine experience not essential; we value curiosity about how wine is grown.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a friendly manner with guests.
• Attention to detail in tastings, bookings, and shipping.
• Ability to notice what needs doing without being asked.

Responsibilities

• Host private tastings for guests and manage bookings and shipping.
• Prepare the tasting room and wines for tastings.
• Spend time in the vineyard with the vineyard manager.
• Grow into marketing, trade sales and events over time.

Skills

Customer service

People skills

Attention to detail

Curiosity

Job description

Coxs' is a small, family-run vineyard in Gibbston, dedicated to premium quality wines and to visitors who taste them. We want guest to feel they've connected with this beautiful part of Aotearoa rather than simply passed through it.

We're looking for a Cellar Door Manager to work alongside us, with room to grow into marketing, trade sales and events. An open opportunity to build your career in wine.

Coxs' Vineyard is a three-hectare single vineyard in Gibbston. Every bottle we make comes off our one site: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Rosé. We don't blend any fruit, so each vintage tastes like the season it came from. We're the second generation here, and the vineyard is both our home and our work.

Tastings are by appointment and capped at fifteen people. We sell direct — cellar door, our own website, and a small number of New Zealand fine-dining restaurants.

We're looking for a Cellar Door Manager to join our small team, starting November 2026. The role is flexible, depending upon the applicant. But begins with 3-4 days a week.

The role

The job is mostly in the tasting room: preparing the room and the wines, hosting private tastings for anyone from beginners to serious collectors, and handling the bookings, orders and shipping that follow. You'd start hosting alongside us and move to running tastings on your own as you're ready.

You'd also spend regular time in the vineyard through the season, alongside our vineyard manager Nick — pruning, thinning, a hand at harvest — with the reasoning explained as you go. That vineyard time is what makes the cellar door experience credible.

In time the role can grow into marketing, trade sales, events, customer relationships and gallery sales, at whatever pace suits the right person.

Who We're Looking For

For the right applicant, wine experience is not essential — we'd much rather teach wine to the right person. What we can't teach is genuine curiosity about how wine is grown, ease with people, care with detail, and noticing what needs doing without being asked.

The details

Permanent and part-time, three–four days a week to begin with and real scope to increase. $30–36 per hour depending on experience, plus commission once you're hosting independently. We're at 178 Gibbston Back Road, around 25 minutes from Queenstown/Cromwell. There's no public transport, so you'll need your own.

You'll need the ongoing right to work in New Zealand.