The Wine Lab
The Wine Lab is an educational wine podcast where wine meets science, history, culture, and the occasional myth that deserves to be retired. Hosted by wine scientist and enologist Dr. Andreea Botezatu, each episode explores how wine is grown, made, tasted, misunderstood, and enjoyed.
Created for curious wine lovers, students, winemakers, and anyone who wants to understand wine a little better, The Wine Lab combines accessible wine education with wine science, grape varieties, wine regions, sensory science, winemaking, history, and culture.
Expect clear explanations, curious stories, and enough technical detail to be useful without making you feel as though you accidentally enrolled in a chemistry class.
Episodes
51 episodes
From Seawater to Bullock’s Blood: A Strange History of Wine
For thousands of years, winemakers have been trying to solve the same problems: wines that were too acidic, cloudy, unstable, oxidized, or simply didn't taste very good. The solutions, however, could get interesting.Ancient wines were tr...
Thomas Jefferson: President, Wine Geek, Failed Winemaker
Thomas Jefferson knew his Bordeaux, traveled through European wine regions taking meticulous notes, ordered Château Lafite directly from the source, and spent years trying - mostly unsuccessfully - to grow European grapes at Monticello. In this...
Sweetness in Wine: What the Numbers Don’t Tell You
What does “dry” wine actually mean? How much sugar can a dry wine contain? And why can two wines with the same residual sugar taste very different?In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea explores the science and sensory side of s...
Pop, Twist, or Pull: What’s Closing Your Wine?
Cork or screw cap? For many wine drinkers, the answer feels surprisingly personal.In this episode of The Wine Lab, we explore the history, culture, science, and occasional drama of wine closures. We’ll look at how natural cork became par...
What’s in a name? That which we call Muscat by any other name would smell as sweet
Why is Pinot named after a pine cone? What makes Tempranillo “the little early one”? Why does Saperavi mean “the dyeing grape,” and who decided to call Xinomavro “sour black”?In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea Botezatu exp...
Rioja Wines Between Barrels, Branding, and the Bottle
Rioja is famous for Tempranillo, oak barrels, and the familiar classifications Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva. But behind those words lies a remarkably diverse region shaped by the Ebro River, mountain ranges, changing elevations, and the m...
Alsace: White Wine with History, Acidity, and Soul
Alsace is one of France’s most distinctive wine regions: deeply French, shaped by Germanic influence, and known for aromatic white wines that can feel ripe and expressive while still staying fresh and focused. In this episode of The Wine Lab, w...
A River Runs Through It: The Wines of the Loire Valley
In this episode of The Wine Lab, we travel through the Loire Valley, one of France’s most diverse and historically layered wine regions. Following the river from the Atlantic coast inland, we explore Muscadet, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Fran...
Burgundy Explained: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and the Power of Place
In this episode of The Wine Lab, we continue our series on the great wine regions of the world with Burgundy, or Bourgogne, one of France’s most influential and fascinating wine regions.Burgundy is famous for Pinot Noir and Chardo...
Bordeaux Wines Beyond the Château: Grapes, Climate, and Blending
Bordeaux is one of the most influential wine regions in the world, but it can also feel intimidating. In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea explains Bordeaux through the features that define it: rivers, climate, soils, grape var...
Grip, Weight, and Freshness: Understanding Wine Mouthfeel
Wine is usually described through aroma and flavor, but some of its most important qualities are physical. This episode of The Wine Lab examines wine texture and mouthfeel: body, viscosity, acidity, tannin, astringency, alcohol warmth,...
A Rosé by Any Other Name Would Taste as Sweet...or Dry
A glass of rosé often feels effortless - light catching a pale pink hue, a hint of summer in the air - but its story runs deeper. In this episode, we trace how rosé is shaped, from fleeting skin contact to the saignée method and the precise art...
Wait, Wine Isn’t Always Vegan?
Episode description Wine seems like one of the most plant-based products imaginable, so why are some wines not considered vegan? In this episode of The Wine Lab, we look at the cellar practices behind that question. Fro...
Ashes in the Glass: Smoke Taint and the New Reality of Wine
What happens when wildfire smoke becomes part of the story of a wine?In this episode of The Wine Lab, Dr. Andreea Botezatu explores smoke taint through the eyes of the consumer. Why do wildfires in places like California and Aus...
Rotten Egg, Burnt Rubber, and Other Ways Wine Can Misbehave
What does it mean when a wine smells like rotten egg, burnt rubber, cabbage, garlic, or canned corn? In this episode of The Wine Lab, Dr. Andreea Botezatu explores sulfur and reductive faults in wine, explaining what wine professionals m...
Women and Wine: From Ritual to Research
This episode of The Wine Lab explores the long and layered history of women in wine. We move through ancient cultures, literature, religious life, art, Champagne history, and modern wine science to look at the many ways women have ...
Of Mice and Wine: The Curious Case of Delayed Dissapointment
Mousiness is one of the most elusive and unsettling faults in wine. Unlike many defects, it doesn’t appear in the aroma. Instead, it emerges after the sip, lingering on the finish in a way that can surprise even experienced tasters.<...
Stable… or From the Stable? Understanding Brettanomyces in Wine
Sometimes a glass of wine smells like dark fruit and spice. Other times, something unexpected appears — leather, earth, even a hint of barnyard. For some wine lovers, those aromas add intrigue. For others, they signal a flaw.In this epis...
Why Wine Sometimes Smells Like Vinegar: The Science of Volatile Acidity
Why does a wine sometimes smell like vinegar, or even nail polish remover?In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea explores the science behind volatile acidity, one of the most confusing aspects of wine aroma. While small...
Fault or Style? Understanding Oxidation in Wine
Is that wine flawed… or just different?In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea explores the difference between wine faults and flaws before turning to one of the most powerful forces in wine chemistry: oxidation.What cau...
When Wine Labels Play Mind Games
Have you ever stood in the wine aisle holding a bottle and thought, “Am I overthinking this?”In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea unpacks why wine labels can feel so confusing, even to people who work in wine.
Second Round Wine: Piquette, Then and Now
Piquette is one of wine’s oldest ideas and one of its newest obsessions. Made by fermenting grape pomace with water, this light, often sparkling wine has roots in ancient Roman practices, European vineyard culture, and everyday resourcefulness....
Between Valpolicella and Amarone: The Science of Ripasso
Ripasso wines are made by giving a finished Valpolicella wine a second pass through fermentation, pouring it over the grape skins left behind from Amarone or Recioto and allowing renewed microbial activity and extraction to take place. In this ...