Hospitality Tasting Room Manager

Robert Young Estate Winery • Full-time • Geyserville, California, United States • $85k - $95k / year • 3w ago

Robert Young Estate Winery is a luxury, family-owned estate in Alexander Valley just 10 minutes from Healdsburg, seeking an experienced and dynamic Hospitality Tasting Room Manager to lead our tasting room team and manage the Scion House, our hospitality center. We are looking for a proven manager and an inspiring leader with DTC experience who can grow, train, and develop a small but high-performing team while fostering a warm, approachable culture, rooted in our family values. The ideal candidate is creative, thinks outside the box, and is passionate about delivering a high-touch, luxury guest experience. This candidate is looking to work in an environment that is nimble, fast-paced, with a flat and responsive reporting structure.

This full-time role (Tuesday–Saturday, 9:00am–5:30pm) oversees the strategic leadership and daily operations of the tasting room, drives direct-to-consumer sales, leads staff development, and cultivates strong industry relationships. This position reports to the Sales & Marketing Manager, and the Director of Winemaking & Winery Operations, and will balance innovative guest programming with disciplined financial oversight and operational excellence.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Financial Oversight

· Develop and own the annual sales and expense budgets for all hospitality operations, modeling benchmark profitability and financial targets.

· Establish, monitor, and adjust monthly, weekly, and daily sales objectives for tasting room.

· Define and report on performance metrics (KPIs) for the tasting room: conversion rates, average spend per guest, repeat visitation, club conversion, etc.

· Analyze trends and variances, recommend corrective actions, and adapt plans proactively.

· Work closely with management and finance to forecast, monitor cash flow, and control costs.

Guest Experience & Hospitality Excellence

· We pride ourselves in offering our guests unreasonable hospitality – going above and beyond to create a memorable experience with each visit. Includes seated tastings, vineyard tours, family history, and immersive and approachable educational experiences in the vineyard and cellar.

· Oversee day-to-day operations of tasting room and experiences.

· Comfortable in selling and closing sales.

· Design, refine, and continuously elevate guest experience offerings and protocols, ensuring all visits are immersive, polished, and brand aligned.

· Maintain consistency in brand/family history storytelling, visual presentation, guest touchpoints, ambiance, and service flow across all experiences.

· Oversee property appearance, ensure cleanliness, maintenance, and functional readiness of hospitality spaces, maintained by our in-house landscaping crew and cleaning service. (interior, patios, restrooms, gardens).

· Serve as a visible presence in the tasting room- greeting guests, assisting during busy periods, and modeling desired service standards.

Staff Leadership, Training & Development

· Foster a high-performance culture emphasizing integrity, authenticity, teamwork, ownership, and luxury hospitality standards. Inspire the team to consistently offer unreasonable hospitality to our guests.

· Provide on-going training to staff to ensure continued brand/wine knowledge and selling skills.

· Recruit, onboard, train, schedule, and supervise all hospitality and tasting room staff.

· Develop, document, and regularly revise all hospitality protocols, scripts, SOPs, and service standards. Ensure Club and shipping orders are accurate and complete.

· Hold consistent daily/weekly/monthly meetings with staff to review performance, goals, best practices, and updates.

· Conduct bi-annual performance reviews and development planning.

Outreach, Partnerships & Guest Acquisition

· Partner with management to develop annual outreach strategies and action plans to drive qualified visitation.

· Cultivate relationships with referral sources: luxury hotels, high-end restaurants, concierge services, destination management companies, clubs, associations, etc.

· Collaborate with marketing to create impactful point-of-sale (POS) materials, collateral, branded merchandise, signage, and promotional handouts.

· Track and analyze the effectiveness of our referral outreach campaigns and iterate based on results.

Events & Loyalty Programming

· In coordination with other Management and our Event Manager, provide input, help plan, and execute high-end product release and club member events, both on-site and off-site, ensuring seamless collaboration and exceptional guest experiences.

· Assist with tasting room/wine club events: pre-event planning, on-site execution, and post-event analysis / debrief.

· Coordinate with production, vineyard, and marketing teams to align event themes, logistics, and guest deliverables.

· Ensure all events reinforce brand standards, delight guests, and generate meaningful sales, loyalty, and media recognition.

Wine Club Integration

· Partner with the Wine Club Manager to align tasting room efforts toward club growth, retention, and fulfillment.

· Train staff to promote membership benefits and upgrade paths during each guest’s visit.

· Monitor metrics such as club sign-ups per visit, retention, upgrade rates, and guest feedback.

Operations & Inventory Management

· Oversee tasting room inventory (on-site wine, merchandise, retail, supplies) and ensure high standards of accountability and control.

· Collaborate with production, logistics, and warehouse teams on inventory flow, vintage changes, allocations, and depletion pacing.

· Implement and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs) for opening/closing, cash handling, POS operations, restocking, damage control, and shipping/logistics.

· Ensure compliance with all licensing, local, and state regulations associated with wine service, gifting, sampling, and sales.

· Work with cleaning, maintenance, and facilities teams to resolve operational issues promptly.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications

· Applicant must be 21 years of age or older.

· 5+ years of management experience and winery or luxury hospitality management experience.

· Strong leadership and team building skills.

· Experienced in a Tasting Room environment with a track record of success in wine sales and membership acquisition.

· Must have exceptional customer service, communication both verbal and written, and email/phone skills.

· Possess strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and adept record-keeping abilities.

· The role requires a person with strong inter-personal skills, but you must feel comfortable learning and working with relatively straight-forward computer applications such as Excel, Word, Wine Direct Admin/POS, Ship compliant, Red Chirp and Tock (reservation booking system- training provided).

· Available to work weekends, holidays and be flexible with your schedule.

· Professional appearance and demeanor with commitment to excellence and high standards.

Physical Requirements

· Ability to lift and carry 50lbs repeatedly.

· Ability to stand and/or walk for long periods of time.

· Ability to restock wine, merchandise, set up and break down for events.

About Us

Robert Young Estate Winery is one of Alexander Valley’s pioneering family estates, producing exceptional wines from an estate the family has owned and farmed since 1858. Joining our team means becoming part of a legacy defined by excellence, integrity and genuine hospitality.

Compensation

· $85,000-$95,000 DOE

· Bonus Potential