🍷 Cellar master

A cellar master (in French, maître de chai) is the person who runs a winery's cellar from the arrival of the grapes to the bottle. The French job directory sums it up in one line: he or she directs and coordinates winemaking and ageing, in close contact with the oenologist.

The year follows the seasons. At harvest time the cellar master takes in the grapes and watches fermentation. Then come ageing, the preparation of cuvées (blends) and finally bottling. Alongside that go cellar hygiene, stock records and paperwork, including the official harvest declarations. At big estates he or she directs the cellar hands (agents de chai), who clean tanks, rack wine between containers, fine and filter it. That is why a cellar master has to be a good taster: when to rack and what to blend depend on it.

People in the role work at wine estates, producer groups, cooperative cellars and merchant houses. No single diploma is required. Typical routes are a BTSA in viticulture and oenology (two years after school), a bachelor's degree or an engineering course, and for the ambitious the oenologist's DNO.

It is easy to confuse the cellar master with the oenologist, though the jobs differ. The cellar master runs the cellar itself, while the oenologist answers for quality and science across the whole process; the oenologist's diploma lets a cellar master take on the entire path of the wine.

What this means for you: the steady taste of a bottle from one year to the next is the work of someone who knows the cellar and can blend. For the place, see Wine cellar; for the mix, Blend; for neighbouring trades, Master blender and Professions in the world of wine.