A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in

winemaking Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...

. They are generally employed by

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...

or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with

viticulturist Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

s *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to determine the correct time for harvest *Crushing and pressing grapes *Monitoring the settling of juice and the fermentation of grape material *

Filtering Filter, filtering or filters may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream * Filter (video), a software component tha ...

the wine to remove remaining solids *Testing the quality of wine by tasting *Placing filtered wine in casks or tanks for

storage Storage may refer to: Goods Containers * Dry cask storage, for storing high-level radioactive waste * Food storage * Intermodal container, cargo shipping * Storage tank Facilities * Garage (residential), a storage space normally used to store car ...

and maturation *Preparing plans for bottling wine once it has matured *Making sure that quality is maintained when the wine is bottled Today, these duties require an increasing amount of scientific knowledge, since laboratory tests are gradually supplementing or replacing traditional methods. Winemakers can also be referred to as oenologists as they study

oenology Oenology (also enology; ) is the science and study of wine and winemaking. Oenology is distinct from viticulture, which is the science of the growing, cultivation, and harvesting of grapes. The English word oenology derives from the Greek word ' ...

– the science of wine. Vigneron

Vintner

A vintner is a

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

. In some modern use, particularly in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

, the term is also used as a synonym for "winemaker". The term started in

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

, superseding the earlier term ''vinter''. Due to the close political and commercial ties between

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

and England during the 14th and early 15th centuries, vintners were among the more important people in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

with winemakers being four times mayor of the city under the reign of

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...

. The

Worshipful Company of Vintners The Worshipful Company of Vintners is one of the oldest Livery Companies of the City of London, England, thought to date back to the 12th century. It is one of the "Great Twelve" livery companies of London, and its motto is ''Vinum Exhilarat A ...

is one of the oldest livery companies in London.

Vigneron

A vigneron is someone who cultivates a

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

for winemaking. The word connotes or emphasizes the critical role that vineyard placement and maintenance has in the production of high-quality wine. The term, French for someone who grows grapes or makes wine, is often used in Australia to describe a winemaker who is also involved as an owner or manager as opposed to a person who is employed only to make wine, who is generally referred to as a winemaker. It is also used when referring to a winemaker from France. Vincent of Saragossa is the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of vignerons.

Négociant

''Négociant'' is the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

term for a

merchant who assembles the produce of smaller growers and winemakers and sells the result under its own name. Négociants buy everything from

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

s to grape

must Must (from the Latin ''vinum mustum'', "young wine") is freshly crushed fruit juice (usually grape juice) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace and typically makes up 7–23% of t ...

to wines in various states of completion. In the case of grapes or must, the ''négociant'' performs virtually all the

. If he buys already fermented wine in barrels or ''en-vrac''—basically in bulk containers, he may

age the wine The aging of wine is potentially able to improve the quality of wine. This distinguishes wine from most other consumable goods. While wine is perishable and capable of deteriorating, complex chemical reactions involving a wine's sugars, acids and ...

further, blend in other wines or simply bottle and sell it as is. The result is sold under the name of the ''négociant'', not the name of the original grape or wine producer. Some ''négociants'' have a recognizable house style. ''Négociants'', who are also called wine merchants/traders, were the dominant force in the wine trade until the last 25 years for various reasons: * Historically the owners of vineyards and producers of wine had no direct access to buyers. * It was too expensive for growers to purchase the wine presses and bottling lines necessary to produce a finished wine. * Owning only a small portion of a particular high-quality single vineyard (''

lieu-dit ''Lieu-dit'' (; plural: ''lieux-dits'') (literally ''said-location'') is a French toponymic term for a small geographical area bearing a traditional name. The name usually refers to some characteristic of the place, its former use, a past event, ...

'') meant that a grower often had insufficient wine from a parcel to vinify on its own. Under French inheritance laws, vineyard holdings were often split until offspring owned no more than a single row of grapes, not enough to fill a

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

. Since prices for a '' premier cru'' are typically higher than for wines from a larger area like a village or region, the grower could make more money selling off the production as the ''premier cru'' rather than blending it into a less specific appellation. Many ''négociants'' are also vineyard owners in their own right. In

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

for instance, ''négociants'' as Bouchard Père et Fils and Faiveley are among the largest owners of vineyards. Well-known ''négociants'' in Burgundy are Maison Louis Jadot, Joseph Drouhin, and Vincent Girardin; in Beaujolais, Georges Duboeuf; in Provence, Mirabeau;mirabeauwine.com
/ref> and in the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

region,

Guigal Guigal, formally ''Établissements Guigal'', is a winery and négociant business situated in Ampuis in the southern part of the Rhône region in France. Guigal produces wine from appellations across the Rhône region, but is particularly noted for ...

, Jaboulet,

Jean-Luc Colombo Jean-Luc Colombo is a French wine producer and ''negociant'' in the Rhône Valley. While Colombo produces several ''Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée'' (AOC) wines in the Rhône, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Hermitage, he is most noted for bei ...

, Chapoutier, and Famille Perrin''.

References

External links

*
The new vignerons: a new generation of Spanish viticulteurs
Luis Gutiérrez, ''Wine Advocate''. {{portal bar, Drink Wine terminology Viticulture

Vintner

Vigneron

Négociant

See also

References

External links