Pa. winemaker dives into issues involving the dynamics of East Coast employment

Andrew Yingst offers some background on the Substack post he penned that looked at the workforce shortage in the industry.

Andrew Yingst has been the winemaker at Grace Winery since 2018.

Winemaker Andrew Yingst is a central Pennsylvania native who worked as an assistant winemaker at Adams County Winery and cellar master at Folino Estate Winery in Berks County before taking over the winemaker role at Grace Winery in 2018.

According to his bio, his passion for wine started during a backpacking trip in New Zealand.

The winery is located at 50 Sweetwater Road on a 40-acre private estate in Glen Mills, in Pennsylvania’s Delaware County. In addition to the winery is a vineyard, tasting rooms and historic barns. The manor house offers dining with farm-to-table cuisine and a boutique hotel. Brunch is served from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. on Friday through Sunday.

Yingst has taken to the Substack platform to occasionally offer his observations on what’s going on in the industry in addition to promoting other posts about wine that catches his attention.

His Jan. 28 post entitled “The Loophole Destroying Pennsylvania’s Wine Industry” dug into the current licensing setup that has allowed for so many out-of-state wineries to set up shop in the state, making wine out of grapes from all over the world. It’s an issue that drew legislators to Nissley Vineyards in Lancaster County last summer for a meeting with several winery owners, but to this point no changes have been announced.

Yingst’s latest post, on May 20, is entitled “Wine’s Workforce Reality,” which looks at the reasons behind a “talent shortage” in the industry.

You can read it at this link, and you can find all of his Substack posts and reposts at this link.

Asked (1) what prompted him to dissect the topic and (2) where this issue ranks when it comes to challenges facing the industry, he responded this way:

1. From a 10,000-foot view, I enjoy researching generalizations people are making around us to see if what the general sentiment is … is actually correct. Diving in a little closer, my previous piece, “Wine’s Demographic Reality,” focused on younger wine buyers/consumers. I find it really interesting but those are large structural issues that I don’t believe any single winery can address. So I thought I’d try to tackle something that wineries may have more control or power over: salaries and finding workers. I gear all of my writing toward the East Coast (or frontier region) wine industry, where we have particular troubles.
For one, wine is considered a “passion” occupation; consequently, salaries and or benefits are not compensated as well as similar production roles. Second, wineries are geared toward agritourism in rural areas, where few people typically live. This is a double-edged sword because workers in rural areas typically get paid less, but wine regions are typically more expensive to live in. Third, the East Coast lacks the career infrastructure that California or other regions possess. This causes job hugging and weaker salary competition.
Lastly, I have well-qualified friends who can’t find jobs. I know winemakers who tell me their benefits, which are dismal. I have owners who cannot find a qualified winemaker ... so where is that disconnect?

2. I think high-ish, but is quite solvable. So the long-term prognosis may not be as bad as the current state. For one, wineries could pay better or provide greater benefits. This also draws higher quality employees which typically means you can do more with less staff. This is something each business has power over. Second, the industry is just super young in America. That is a reality that I didn’t fully grasp until the research. It’s really only been going strong in America since the 1980s (in California), and on the East Coast it was pretty weak until the 2000s and the craft boom. Some of these issues are simply occurring now because the industry is maturing. This causes temporary rockiness but it will smooth out eventually. Some issues will remain, the rural living cost issue is not easily solvable, but every industry has its own can of worms.

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