Wine Buyer

If you know your reds from your whites, and the idea of buying the newest vintage makes you salivate, this is the job for you. Wine Buyers work with clients—usually restaurants or shops but sometimes private collectors—to buy the wines that best match their palate.

Wine is a complex thing, and learning all about it can take a long time. That’s why people rely on Wine Buyers for advice on what will be the best wines for their purpose and budget. If you’re a Wine Buyer, you stay up to date on industry news so you always know what new types are coming out, which is the hot new winery, and whose grapes haven’t done so well.

You then use your knowledge to give what your client wants. Say they’re opening a new restaurant and only want Spanish wines that cost between $40 and $60 a bottle. You come up with a bunch of different options, give them a taste test, and then based on what they choose, arrange for deliveries.

This job isn’t just about tasting and research though. You do a lot of international shipping work as well. You negotiate prices with the winery and then facilitate the shipping of the wine.

You need good business sense and great communication skills to do well in this job. Oftentimes, you’re working with wineries based all over the world, so the ability to speak another language, or at least understand how business works in other countries, will help you greatly.