Hello, my name is Rachael, and I manage anything that relates to the quality and safety of the wine we package and sell. My role is naturally integrated with sustainability as being able to ensure the safety and longevity of our products directly minimises the risk of waste. Beyond that, sustainability is a core element of Canned Wine Group, and I consider this factor in each decision encountered within technical management, whilst also supporting on company-wide sustainability initiatives.
Here’s what that typically looks like, although every day is different in a rapidly growing small business like Canned Wine Group and I’m continually learning and trying out new tasks!
Wine Supply Management
Close management of our delicious wines from where they’re made at one of our supplying wineries through to the final packaging is at the core of my wider technical management. I create a buying checklist for each wine we purchase to keep us on top of the tasks required to get the wines to market when we need them, in the best possible condition and set to stay fresh for a long time in can or keg. This is especially critical for our wines being packaged into cans as there are several technical restraints that differ from other formats like glass bottles, kegs or bag in box.
At Canned Wine Group, we prioritise working with winemakers who can demonstrate the quality and safety of their wines as well as championing environmental and social sustainability. This is a key part of my role in wine sourcing and supplier approval. Our Head Wine Buyer, Ben, is a wiz at finding exceptional wines from earnest European producers. For these wines, I assess the analytical make-up of the wine for compatibility with the can environment and then once we’ve approved a wine, assist with any blending requirements and set technical specifications for the wine to be held at under my supervision.
We value nurturing our supplier relationships and so I make time to inquire about any ongoing quality and sustainability initiatives and share my experience of canning wines and can-specific wine chemistry.
Sometimes it’s necessary to drop everything else and firefight as it’s not uncommon for supply chain logistics to go wrong and often when one part falls through, the whole production plan can be uprooted.
QSMS & Compliance
Another crucial part of my role has been to build and now keep on top of our Quality & Safety Management System (QSMS), an essential element of any food manufacturing business which ensures only wines which are safe for the consumer are packaged and placed on the market. For example, it would be a disaster to release a wine containing sulphites (a relatively common allergen) which didn’t have ‘contains sulphites’ declared on the label – a functioning QSMS mitigates the risk of food safety incidents like this and contains actionable procedures to handle them quickly and effective in the unlikely event that they were to arise. From a sustainability point of view, the QSMS prevents incidents that could end up with us having to destroy stock that is unfit for consumption – a big waste.
In a similar vein, the regulations for food law, wine production and product labelling are continually changing and staying up to date is critical to avoid placing non-compliant products on the market – like in the undeclared allergen example above. Canned Wine Group is a member of The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) who are invaluable as a trade body. Without the WSTA I would be sure I’d missed any one of the many relevant legislative changes that are happening at the moment! I also sit on the association’s technical committee – we meet quarterly to discuss regulatory updates and troubleshoot any technical or compliance issues that come up.
Shelf Life Assessment
I have a dynamic tasting schedule that involves frequent tasting of all our wines from the time of packaging. I’m looking for any sensory changes that suggest a chemical change or progression of components in the wine over time and use this alongside the analysis at the point of packaging to optimise certain analytical parameters at packaging for future productions, with the goal of stretching the shelf life of each wine every time it’s produced.
I’m probably the only Technical Manager working for a wine company in the UK dedicated to such in-depth shelf life study of premium wine in cans!
These are the core elements of my day-to-day technical management at Canned Wine Group. but there are a few other things that might be worth a quick mention if I haven’t lost you already:
- New product development (NPD)! Last summer I developed a lower alcohol organic white wine spritzer with the team which was a lot of fun
- Similarly, assisting on the repurposing of wines we’ve sadly had to roll vintages on – stay tuned for a fun repurposing project we recently contributed to
- Keeping the team clued up about my increasing understanding of and expertise with our canned wine products through white board wine chemistry workshops
- Visiting our suppliers, packaging partners or generally mucking in with trade events and sampling opportunities
- Supporting Positive Luxury and B Corp certification efforts by providing data collected from our suppliers and other ad hoc contributions
Lastly, through my time at Canned Wine Co. so far, I am seeing the importance of learning to recognise and own my mistakes or shortcomings, in addition to troubleshooting any quality issues that arise, as both are vital to creating long term solutions that benefit the business, our suppliers and our customers.
