~ Quality Assurance Consulting, Management, and Solutions for Wineries

~ Production Process Technical Support for Winemakers

~ Representation for Outstanding Winemaking Tools and Services

Laboratory/Quality Assurance Experience:

From 2001 through 2009 I worked as an Analytical Chemist for ETS Laboratories, the industry leader in independent analytical services for the wine industry.

After two years at the main lab in St. Helena, CA, I was given the opportunity to help  establish the first ETS satellite lab in McMinnville, OR. That experience allowed me to interface more directly with winemakers and their production process. One thing quickly became clear:  Winemaking is challenging, very challenging!

Wanting to provide direct technical support and quality assurance solutions to wineries, I left ETS after harvest 2009 and started Core Enology Group.

Production Process Management Experience:

After graduating from Reed College in 1994 with a degree in Chemistry I worked for Gamblin Artists Colors, a company in Portland, OR that manufactures artists oil paints and painting mediums. It was a factory environment, with raw pigments, oil, mixers, mills, filling machines, labelers, etc. The manufacturing was done on a single-day production cycle: get the paint mixed, milled, filled, packaged and ready to be shipped out by the end of the day. The short production cycle allowed me to participate in making hundreds of batches of paint and I was able to develop a high level of expertise in just a few years.

But winemakers don't have the luxury of making batch after batch after batch. The number of batches of paint that I made in a few years was far greater than the number of wines any single winemaker can expect to make in a lifetime. And unlike paint manufacturing where all aspects of the process are relatively easy to control, winemakers -- with a production process that is a blend of agriculture, microbiology, and chemistry (not to mention sales, marketing, and business management) -- face a dizzying array of variables that change year to year and are often outside of their control. Daunting!

The purpose of the work I do is to reduce the challenges faced by winemakers by helping manage the quality parameters at the core of their product and business -- thereby helping facilitate the creation of beautiful wines!

Corey Guinnee

Core Enology Group