Chemical Engineering Undergrad

Hi guys, newhere

Just spent several hours reading through the wealth of information you guys have on this forum and thought this would be a good place to ask some questions I’ve had about working in wineries. First off, I currently have little to no experience working with wines. I have, however, recently secured a research position within my university viticulture and enology department to analyze the extraction kinetics during fermentation. Also, I will be taking an Intro to Winemaking course next quarter, along with a Winery Design class the quarter after that. So I should be well-prepared for a summer internship - which raises a few questions:

  1. What opportunities are there for chemical engineers in the wine industry? What exactly would I be doing?
    and
  2. What internship positions should I be seeking to best prepare me for #1? Should I just stick to large wineries like Gallo, Constellation, etc.?
    or
  3. Am I jumping the gun and should I just stick to a basic harvest internship at any winery for now? This is what I’m currently leaning toward.

I’ll be applying to a couple wineries both big and medium sized within the next couple weeks so any insight would be appreciated. Thanks so much guys keep up the great work!

I think with that background there are lots of opportunities in the wine industry, especially at the larger wineries. I would target an internship at one of the large wineries, they are likely the only ones able to offer it. The experience will be invaluable. Large scale winemaking is obviously much different but it is experience and will give you a true idea as to whether it’s something you want to pursue.

Thanks for the advice Tim, I’ll begin to narrow my list down to only larger wineries. Cheers!

Hopefully Tony will come back and see this.

I graduated undergrad ChE in1986 and worked 25 years in the Environmental field in Chemical and Food industry before I realized the degree was perfect for winemaking. And a lot more fun than designing wastewater treatment plants and controls on smoke stacks. Just now doing a commercial startup after 5-6 years of home winemaking.

My advise is to take an internship at any size winery and ask as many questions as the winemakers and grape growers will tolerate. Be a cellar rat and learn every aspect of moving the fluids and solids around, think about the reactions happening, or not happening, at every step of the process from growing in the field through and after bottling. Take classes in horticulture, microbiology, and food sanitation too if one is available.

Another option that is closely related and has more year around opportunity is to intern at a brewery or cider works, or even an industrial ethanol plant (think corn->ethanol). Processes are obviously somewhat different, but all the nuts and bolts are similar and scalable to wine production. Those processes are usually more continuous, semi batch where wine is all batch processing, but they can run all months of the year without changing hemispheres.

Good Luck!

Thanks for your response! I’ll be interning at Bronco Winery in Ceres, CA this summer working in both the engineering and winemaking departments. I’ve learned a lot more about winemaking since my first post and am honestly really excited about this opportunity. I’m considering getting a graduate degree in V&E and becoming a full time winemaker but that is a bit far down the road to be serious about right now. But yes, I definitely agree winemaking is a hell of a lot more interesting than learning about diffusion or heat transfer…

Glad things are moving in your direction.

A fundamental understanding of heat transfer, mass transfer, and fluid flow will prove useful in many fields including, I suspect, winemaking. [cheers.gif]

If you [or maybe your parents] have a few extra $$$s lying around, then see whether someone would sell you a ton [or a partial ton] of grapes this fall, and a few old barrels [no TCA, no Bret], and try your hand at making your own wine this year.

Once you know people who know people who know people, you just might learn of someone who would be willing to sell you something. And it doesn’t hurt to ask - all they can do is say no [or laugh at you, or ignore you altogether].

You only get one chance per year to do it - every harvest you miss, it’s another 11 or 12 months until you get a chance to do it again.

And it doesn’t have to be a full-sized barrel, nor does it have to be a full-sized barrel entirely filled with wine - or you could do stainless steel or even plastic and throw in oak chips or oak sawdust to taste.

Or do stainless/plastic and make white wines - they taste better than reds anyway.

Sorry for the late response! I’ve been busy at work and didn’t realize people were still replying to this thread haha.

I appreciate the suggestion Nathan, that sounds like a great idea… though my wine might not turn out so well… I’ll start asking around!

Just to update the thread: I’m finishing up my internship and have had a wonderful experience. I’m pretty committed to becoming a winemaker in the future. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to take the prerequisites for Viticulture and Enology Graduate Programs in my senior year of undergrad because I’ll be pretty loaded with engineering courses. So it looks like I’ll have to find a job either as an engineer in the winemaking industry or in another industry altogether (there doesn’t seem to be many wineries that hire engineers) while preparing, and eventually, attending graduate school. Honestly, I feel pretty overwhelmed with trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life but at least I feel like I’m (slowly) moving in the right direction. Thanks again guys.

I bet the huge wineries like Gallo hire Chemical Engineers, and if they don’t you could explain to them why they should.

Of course you might have to live some place like Modesto, but I bet you would learn a lot that would be helpful in the future.

Yepp! Gallo as an engineer is number one on my list right now.

or you can have the best of both worlds! I went ahead years ago bought fruit and began making wine… I’m now into my 4th vintage and still enjoying the hell out of it… I studied electrical engineering and too thought about going back to school to study enology. Decided instead to purchase fruit and just go for it while still maintaining a job as an engineer. I dreamt of moving to wine country someday and hoped to purchase a property and plant a vineyard. Well its finally happening! Well, the relocation part. I’m moving to the Willamette Valley next week. My wife and I both have jobs lined up and are as excited as ever. I hope to purchase a home out there in the next year with at least a half acre and plant right away. So you could still be a badass engineer during the day and go home to your hobby at night… for me that will eventually be stumbling around drunk at night in my vineyard :slight_smile: