Students in the Master of Science in Vineyard & Winery Management program are required to conduct a complete technical, financial and marketing audit of a wine estate. This challenging exercise trains students to become true vineyard and winery managers. The audit allows them to understand the management of a winery in all its complexity. BSA is the only school in the world to offer this course.
The first-year Master’s students carry out a technical audit
The second-year Master’s students carry out a complete audit: technical, accounting, financial and marketing
Students following the Master of Science in Vineyard & Winery Management degree program face the real challenges of managing a foreign winery, by conducting a complete audit – technical, accounting, financial and marketing – which they are required to do in their second year.
This difficult and complex exercise is a flagship feature of the BSA (Bordeaux Sciences Agro) course. It is the only school in the world to offer this in its teaching.
The students, working in groups of 4 or 5, are expected to act as real external consultants and present their work and advice at the end of the audit to the owners and managers of the vineyard.
The first-year Master’s students carry out a technical audit
To prepare them for this complete audit, in their first year they carry out a technical audit for a French wine château, with BSA teachers Laura Farris and Greg Gambetta. They collect data by conducting field surveys and interviewing the owners. In particular, they must observe the vigor of the vines, the geomorphology of the vineyard (slope and exposure of the different plots), etc.
They evaluate the vineyard, as well as the technical and human means of production, and must find improvements to better adapt to the owner’s strategy.
They also taste the product range according to different criteria and compare it with that of the competition to position it qualitatively and quantitatively.
They then participate in coaching sessions during which they can ask their teachers for guidance. They brainstorm and explore different ways to improve.
Statistics on the data collected in the vineyards and the wines tasted are calculated to analyze whether there is significant variance between different elements. For example, they can compare the mortality of vines in one plot with those in another.
Each group presents its work orally to the teachers and the owners of the estate.
The second-year Master’s students carry out a complete audit: technical, accounting, financial and marketing
In the second year of the Master’s program, students travel abroad (in non-Covid times) to audit a winery in a comprehensive manner: technical, accounting, financial and commercial.
BSA finds the estate, and organizes and finances the trip, which lasts from 7 to 10 days. The winery under study generally has a minimum of 20 hectares of vineyards and focuses on exports. It can be a family-run organization, a member of a cooperative winery, or a multinational, located in another country.
The 3-month entrepreneurial project (from January to the beginning of April) is carried out in teams, in a confidential setting. The visit to the vineyard lasts 2 days. Other estates in the region are visited to understand the regional particularities and to provide a benchmark. Students really appreciate this immersion. They must understand the challenges facing the vineyards and meet the expectations of the managers. The aim of the exercise is to train future winery managers.
The complete audit consists of three phases:
- Diagnostic
- Analysis
- Proposals
First phase: diagnostic
Students must conduct a number of benchmarks on:
- Accounting and financial analysis
- Sensory analysis of the wines of direct competitors
- Viticultural analysis (soil analysis, disease issues, climate-related issues, vegetative state, irrigation, etc.)
- Oenological analysis (degree of innovation, wine-making and ageing practices, etc.)
Wineries share their accounting and financial documents over a period of at least 3 years, some even 8 years, as well as their technical and commercial data, buyer behavior, etc.
The students build the data, and sometimes even set up cost accounting.
They conduct various surveys among consumers, either online or through focus groups, for example on their perception of wine labels, their opinion on wine tourism, the price they are willing to pay for organic certification, the market placement of wines according to distribution channels, etc.
They also have the opportunity to conduct a study on the soils, the climate, the allocation of working periods in the vineyard and the cellar, the managerial organization of the winery, etc.
Second phase: analysis
A full financial analysis is carried out, looking at the following:
- Labor costs
- Production costs (grape harvesting machines, sprayers, bottling, labeling, tractors)
- Costs of inputs, purchases of dry materials (bottles, corks, labels…), (re)planting
- Marketing costs
- Selling price
- Marketing effort
They analyze the overall profitability of the operation, the debt ratio, the relationship with customers and suppliers, the profitability of marketing channels and products, etc. They can also perform an analysis of the website and the management of social networks.
The audit is accompanied by coaching sessions with BSA teachers, in particular Jean-Christophe Barbe or Alfredo Coelho on the financial and management part, and with other professionals involved in the management of wine companies (wine merchants, winery managers, export managers, etc.). In-depth interviews are held with the owners and/or managers of the winery studied.
Third phase: proposals
This phase is risky and delicate: it consists in making realistic management choices, justifying them and making suggestions to the owners and managers of the winery.
The second-year Master’s students must find solutions to the challenges exposed during the diagnostic phase and formulate scenarios, for example:
- An inheritance
- An appellation or geographical indication
- Conversion to organic (loss of volume, additional costs, at what price should I sell my organic wines to be profitable?)
- Reorganization of the market placement of a wine range
- Insufficient profitability or too much debt.
Students sometimes propose innovations, for example producing sparkling wines, or planting new grape varieties that are resistant to cryptogamic diseases.
They must quantify the costs generated by their proposal and create a business plan to calculate the return on investment in the medium or long term (3, 5 or 10 years). For example: if the proposed solution is to plant a new grape variety, use fertilizer, buy more expensive barrels, redesign the packaging, etc., they must calculate the profitability of this solution and consider all consequences.
Then, the owners or managers can implement these proposals for improvement among the different ideas brought forward by the students, thus benefiting from new insights.
The audit is the subject of an oral presentation of 1 hour and 15 minutes (30 minutes of presentation and 45 minutes of questions and answers) in front of BSA teachers and the owners and managers of the winery. The report is then evaluated and a group grade is given.
See the Master of Science in Vineyard & Winery Management degree program