Wine Buyer & Collection Curator (Freelance or Part-Time), Descanto Social

Craft the Soul of Our Monthly Wine Box Brand

We’re building a new monthly wine box experience dedicated to discovering interesting European wines and telling the human stories behind them. Our mission is simple: to connect curious consumers to a world of tradition, stories and craftsmanship. We focus on wines made by the hands of passionate small producers: from those who embrace tradition to those who disrupt and pioneer change. Our wines will always have personality and intention; they will have a story worth talking about. And of course - above all else - they will taste amazing.

To shape our first collection, we’re looking for a Wine Buyer & Collection Curator who not only knows how to find outstanding wines, but who also understands the deeper narrative that makes each bottle meaningful. This role is about taste, intuition, and the ability to translate a winemaker’s world into an experience our customers can feel through our collection and monthly offerings.

About the Role

You will curate our inaugural portfolio of 20 wines across a minimum of five European countries, crafting a selection that reflects identity and purpose alongside quality and value. You’ll be the bridge between our brand and the winemakers who inspire it, helping us bring their voices, landscapes, and philosophies to life.

What You’ll Do

• Select wines that embody story as much as flavour—bottles with a clear sense of place, a winemaker’s intention, and a reason to exist.
• Build and nurture relationships with authentic, independent producers whose values and craftsmanship align with our own.
• Work with us to communicate the narrative behind each wine: the winemaker’s story, the land, traditions, quirks and anecdotes that make it unique.
• Provide tasting notes and sensory insights.
• Work with us to craft a coherent brand narrative that spans regions and styles, ensuring each bottle adds value to our consumer experience.
• Ensure that all wines and producers meet EU export requirements, ensuring a smooth and compliant supply chain.
• Manage import process and customs documentation into Portugal.

Who You Are

• Highly knowledgable and well connected to European wine regions, with a passion for the lesser-known and the under-celebrated.
• Comfortable speaking with winemakers, listening to their stories, and communicating to founders the reason for each wine selection. You will need to be able to succinctly outline each wine’s main ‘talking points’, explaining what makes the wine uniquely interesting and exciting to the modern consumer.
• Experienced in wine buying, importing, or sommelier work, with a strong network of boutique producers.
• Excited to help build a young brand from scratch—someone who enjoys shaping tone, identity, and creative direction, as well as being confident to make suggestions and surprise us.

Our Ideal Collaborator

You are passionate about wine far above and beyond the product. You understand how wine reflects culture and evokes memory, often becoming a vehicle for unique social experiences. You gravitate toward producers who work quietly but passionately, whose wines reflect their landscapes, their lives and their passions. You love the process of uncovering stories and helping us to tell narratives that bring small producers into the spotlight, building appreciation for their work and their craft.

What We Offer

• Flexible, creative collaboration (freelance or part-time)
• Fair compensation aligned with experience and the depth of your network
• Opportunity to shape the narrative and portfolio of a new brand from the ground up
• A long-term partnership as our subscription offering grows