The People Who Make the Wine You're Enjoying

  The people usually getting the credit are wine makers (deserved) or winery owners (not necessarily deserved). Like any successful company it's the people you hire that do the actual work.  In small wineries, as any small business, a person will wear multiple hats. What are their roles in the wine industry?

Vintner 

The official definition is someone who makes or sells wine. What it usually means, in the U.S. anyway, is a winery owner. A vintner is essentially responsible for selling the wine his/her winemaker produces.
  The vintners that are well-known wine "rock stars" are going to be famous folks who put their name on a wine. These are often sports stars or Hollywood celebrities. Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt/Angelia Jolie are examples.
  Not saying a vintner can't be hands-on with the production of a wine, but most are owners who run the business side or just investors from afar. Often people, including professional writers, use vintner and winemaker interchangeably. Following is an example of what they call "Rockstar Winemakers" from the publication The Drinks Business:

Better known as the drummer and namesake of legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood also maintains an interest in wine having founded the Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar.
Located in Lake County in California, and managed in collaboration with Langtry Estate and Vineyards, Mick is not directly involved in the winemaking process, but maintains a watchful eye on the final product, with all the wines said to be crafted to his own tastes.

Mick lives in Hawaii, the winery making his wines is in northern California. He's probably visited a few times, but he's no winemaker.

Winemaker

  The person with the overall responsibility for the production of the wine. They might be a hands-on winemaker or someone who sits at a computer with more of a project manager type of job (ordering, scheduling, staffing). The latter might be found in very large operations where one or more assistant winemakers are hands-on in the cellar. They will often direct the vineyard manager on what they want done during the grape growing and harvest seasons.
  Winemakers can become well-known "rock stars." A couple examples are Merry Edwards and Helen Turley.

Blaine is the winemaker for J. Rickards Winery, 5,000 case produced
One of the 450 wineries in Sonoma County
image from sonomamag.com

Vineyard Manager

  This person is the lead for growing the grapes and producing the quantity and quality of fruit called for by the people making the wine. Some of the things they are responsible for would be staffing and compliance with labor laws and the chemicals used in the vineyard.
  The best ones become well-known by other winery folks.

Vineyard worker

  The perform the daily tasks to maintain the vines and the land. Some of the things they do are pruning, thinning fruit, working the soil, or fertilizing. They spend their days outside in all kinds of weather.
  They work hard, don't get paid a heck of a lot, and are the backbone of the wine industry.

Cellar worker (aka Cellar Rat)

  There's a lot of physical labor in the production of wine and these people do it whether it's cleaning (there's a lot of cleaning done in a wine cellar) or hauling hoses around. Most of their day is spent in a chilly wine cellar.
  Like vineyard workers it's hard work, don't make a ton of money, and are the other backbone of the wine industry.

Seasonal workers

   These are people that come for the harvest both in the vineyard and in the cellar. Harvest vineyard help picks grapes, harvest cellar works process the fruit and, of course, clean everything. These people are absolutely critical during the late-summer through autumn grape harvest.

Good times!
image from kostabrowne.com