Rachel Lipman

Experience

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  Pinky and Pepe's Grape Escape

  Dec 2010 - Aug 2012

  Assistant Manager

  Sold and served beer and wine to customers, educated customers, consulted with distributors, made wine recommendations based on meals and customer's palate, conducted wine tastings, reconciled cash/credit card transactions with POS system, organized and accounted inventory, and assisted with fundraisers

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  Loew Vineyards

  Dec 2010 - now

  I am the fifth generation winemaker, vineyard manager, and general manager of all operations at my family’s vineyard and winery in Maryland. We have been producing award winning meads and wines since 1982.-Runs family-owned winery and grew production from 730 to 2600 cases in three years-Produces Chardonnay, Grüner Veltliner, Vidal Blanc, Reliance, Seyval Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Chancellor and Barbera over the past seven years, including award winning wines in various styles Finds creative ways to work with fruit to undesirable chemistry and produce a successful wine (ex: Barbera semi-carbonic for a Nouveau that sold out in 11 days)-Develops production, business plans, and grant proposals for winery growth-Maintains estate vineyard with nutrient management, spray program, vineyard management-Oversees, leads, and performs all aspects of production from development of the wine program, chemistry analysis, processing, lab analysis, blending, fining, filtering, racking, bottling, cleaning, stabilizing, chaptalization, acidification, etc. -Maintains pivotal relationships with local growers and vendors-Established and manages a growing wine club -Redesigned labels and submitted them to the TTB for approval-Generated reports on inventory, sales, and taxes to monitor business-Designed and created all marketing materials including social media -Manages winery and tasting room staff and implemented a payroll system-Coordinates and spearheads on and off-site events-Redesigned winery and purchased new equipment (after a lot of research)-Collaborates with local restaurants and stores to create private wine labels -Works with wholesaler (Siema Wines) to sell Loew wines in DMV area for placements Show less Tests unbiased samples of grapes to determine Total Acidity and Brix levels of the grapes for harvest.Supervises harvest and upholds standards of quality control.Inoculates juice with yeast for start of fermentation.Analyzes quality of crop via Total Acid Titration and using the refractometer.Conducts Chromatography tests.Attended MWA meetings and round tables collaborating with other Maryland winemakers.Assists with large group tastings and selling wine on and off premise. Renovated company website.Manages and distributes wine to existing and new accounts.Assisted with labeling wine and capping bottles.Blended new vintages in bottling process and promoted them through social media outlets. Inspects, and diagnoses disease in the vineyard (fungal, bacterial, and viral).Supervises vineyard for pest and beneficial insect population.**Has helped with major and smaller Maryland wine festivals for several years. Has been involved with this vineyard my whole life. Is active in all decisions made in winery and advises vineyard management practices.** Show less

  • Winemaker & Vineyard Manager

    Nov 2018 - now

  • Assistant Winemaker and Vintner

    Dec 2010 - now
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  The Bottle Shop

  Dec 2012 - Aug 2014

  Retail Associate

  Sells wine and beer to customers, makes wine recommendations based on meals and customer's palate, educates customers, conducts wine tastings and seminars, organizes inventory, and reconciles closing cash/credit card transactions with POS system

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  Domaine Des Noades

  Jul 2014 - Aug 2014

  Viticulture and Oenology Intern

  Pruning vines, organizing vines, labeling, assisting in city markets, identifying grape varieties (Grolleau, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc), barrel and blind tasting, identifying disease and pest damage, bottling, assisting in sales, driving tractors, weeding, and pruning suckers.

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  University of Maryland

  Sept 2014 - May 2015

  Plant Pathology Intern/Assistant

  Performing work in the Plant Pathology lab (hood work, plating, fungal and bacterial isolations, insect identification, etc). I am working on a pilot study that is focused on the interaction of insects in a vineyard with the effects on grapes during veraison. Specifically, sour rot with reared Spotted-Winged Drosophila Flies.

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  RLipman-Alcohol Course

  Aug 2015 - Oct 2019

  BEST Alcohol Awareness Instructor

  Sole Proprietor of RLipman-Alcohol CourseProvides Alcohol Awareness courses under Article 2B of the Annotated Code of Maryland to those who need to be certified in the Maryland food and beverage industry.http://www.rlipman-alcoholcourse.com/

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  Siema Wines

  Dec 2015 - Nov 2018

  Sales Representative