Career profile · SOC ESC-21820D65

oenologist

Oenologists track the wine manufacturing process in its entirety and supervise the workers in wineries. They supervise and coordinate production to ensure the quality of the wine and also give advice by determining the value and classification of wines being produced.

oenologist oenologists track the wine manufacturing process in its entirety and supervise the workers in wineries. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include wine characteristics, wine blending, types of wine, biotechnology, wine fermentation process.

AI exposure
5.0/10
automation risk

Pay in the UK

UK: median £48,776 a year for Engineering professionals n.e.c. (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)

Middle half of full-time jobs: £39,653 to £61,717 a year

UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2129). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)

Pay in India (occupation group)

Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only oenologist, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.

Urban India
₹42,717 a month
Rural India
₹30,424 a month
All India
₹38,466 a month

Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report

Top skills

wine characteristics wine blending types of wine biotechnology wine fermentation process beverages filtration processes financial capability pathogenic microorganisms in food quality assurance methodologies winery production process

Knowledge you'll build

  • Production and Processing
  • Food Production
  • Chemistry
  • English Language
  • Mathematics
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Biology
  • Computers and Electronics

What you'd actually do

  • Inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management.
  • Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value.
  • Study methods to improve aspects of foods, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience.
  • Develop food standards and production specifications, safety and sanitary regulations, and waste management and water supply specifications.
  • Stay up to date on new regulations and current events regarding food science by reviewing scientific literature.
  • Study the structure and composition of food or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing.

Tools & technology you'd use

Microsoft Excel hot Microsoft Office software hot Microsoft Outlook hot HubSpot software hot Hypertext markup language HTML hot Marketo Marketing Automation hot Microsoft Access hot Microsoft PowerPoint hot Microsoft Word hot R hot SAP software hot Structured query language SQL hot

Frequently asked questions

What does oenologist do?

Oenologists track the wine manufacturing process in its entirety and supervise the workers in wineries. They supervise and coordinate production to ensure the quality of the wine and also give advice by determining the value and classification of wines being produced.

What skills does oenologist need?

The most in-demand skills for this role include wine characteristics, wine blending, types of wine, biotechnology, wine fermentation process, beverages filtration processes. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.

Will AI replace oenologist?

Our AI-durability model gives oenologist a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.

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