Senior Winemaker

winejobsonline.com; Canterbury; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Immediate start

Remuneration on experience

Varied role across winemaking

Whānau-owned business

Director collaboration opportunity

Job summary

Tiki Wine & Vineyards seeks a Senior Winemaker to lead our Waipara winery, reporting to the Director of Winemaking and the owners. This permanent full-time role blends hands‑on winemaking with strategic management of budgets, infrastructure and resources to consistently produce wines of the highest quality.

You will oversee end-to-end winemaking, QA/QC systems, stock movements, and contract winemaking, while guiding the winery team, harvest resourcing and safety culture.

Qualifications

• Relevant winemaking or oenology qualifications, and hands-on experience in New Zealand or a comparable wine region.
• Clear, professional communication
• Sound, practical judgement
• A genuine team player
• Initiative
• A strong safety mindset and respect for the land.

Responsibilities

• Leading winemaking operations end‑to‑end including fruit intake, fermentation, maturation, blending, stabilisation, filtration, bottling coordination, and dispatch across our brand and client wines.

Job description

TIKI WINE & VINEYARDS - SENIOR WINEMAKER

Tiki Wine & Vineyards is looking for a Senior Winemaker to lead our winemaking operations at our Waipara winery located 780 Glasnevin Road. This role works closely with our Director of Winemaking and the business owners. This permanent full-time role has a strong focus on leading the winery team and operations, combining hands‑on winemaking with strategic management of budgets, infrastructure and resources to consistently produce wines of the highest quality.

Tiki Wine & Vineyards is a family‑owned winery founded by Royce and Sue McKean. Tiki has a small, close‑knit team who work hard together, take pride in the wine we bottle, and care about doing right by the land and by each other. If that sounds like your kind of place to work, we'd love to hear from you.

The Role

Reporting to the Director of Winemaking for technical, style, and quality, and to the business owners for commercial and operational matters, this role is responsible for wine quality from fruit intake through to finished wine across the Tiki brand, private label, and contract winemaking.

Responsibilities Include

• Leading winemaking operations end‑to‑end including fruit intake, fermentation, maturation, blending, stabilisation, filtration, bottling coordination, and dispatch across our brand and client wines.
• Maintaining robust QA/QC systems: lab testing, tasting programmes, traceability, and dispatch documentation.
• Managing wine stock including volumes, locations, movements, analysis, allocations, and liaising directly with private label wine customers on specifications, samples, and service delivery.
• Acting as a key day‑to‑day contact for contract winemaking clients, including planning, sampling, trials, blend discussions, and sign‑off.
• Overseeing winery and cellar operations, hygiene/CIP regimes, maintenance planning, contractor coordination, and site compliance.
• Leading harvest and vintage resourcing, rostering, and supervision of winery staff and contractors.
• Providing day‑to‑day leadership to the winemaking, cellar, and vintage teams working closely with the Assistant Winemaker and Cellar Supervisor to foster a strong, positive safety culture.
• Managing budgets, capex and winery plan against sales projections.

If You Are Looking For a Winery Where You Can Make Your Mark And Take On a Broad, Varied Scope — All Under One Roof, Then We Want Someone Who Brings

• Relevant winemaking or oenology qualifications, and hands‑on experience in New Zealand or a comparable wine region.
• Clear, professional communication
• Sound, practical judgement
• A genuine team player
• Initiative
• A strong safety mindset and respect for the land.

What We Offer

• Immediate start.
• Remuneration dependent on experience and capability.
• A genuinely varied role spanning brand, private label, and contract winemaking which is a rare breadth for a winery of our size.
• A close, whānau‑owned business where your contribution is visible and valued, and where there's real scope to grow your responsibility over time.
• A chance to work alongside our Director of Winemaking and be part of a small team producing internationally awarded wine from one of New Zealand's most distinctive wine regions.