What We Do (and drink) When No One Is Looking

In the wine industry we drink on the job even when people are looking...especially when they are looking.

It’s not unusual for folks who learn you work in the wine industry to immediately assume you drink for a living. And why wouldn’t they assume that? It’s true.

It’s true that a part of the job of the wine buyer, the wine retailer, the winery tasting room worker, the winemaker, the distributor sales rep, the wine writer and myriad of jobs in the wine industry requires drinking (or at least “tasting”) during working hours. After you spend enough time in this industry it is easy to forget exactly how unique it is to work in a job that requires you to ingest an inebriant. That uniqueness is often brought home when you mention your line of work to a new acquaintance.

It didn’t take me long to stop trying to explain to non-industry folks that judging in a wine competition “is real work!…No, really it is”. While it is work to apply your knowledge and experience to a long series of anonymous wines and focus your attention on each all the while trying not to get drunk, trying to tell someone it’s not work almost always falls on deaf ears. It just doesn’t seem like work, does it?