About this podcast
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
The newest 20 of 55 episodes
- Wine Snobbery: A Brief History of Feeling Superior · 33 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Why does wine make perfectly intelligent people feel inadequate? And when did knowing something about wine become a way of feeling…
- Beaujolais Nouveau Explained: Gamay, Carbonic Maceration & Banana Aromas · 21 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Why does Beaujolais Nouveau taste so different from other red wines, and what exactly is carbonic maceration? In this episode of The…
- Dictators and Their Favorite Wines: What Stalin, Castro and Other Strongmen Drank · 23 min · Season 2Send me your thoughts at [email protected] Joseph Stalin drank the semi-sweet Georgian red Khvanchkara. Fidel Castro developed an unexpected enthusiasm for Chablis. Nicolae…
- Texas Wine on Its Own Terms · 25 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Texas is far too large and diverse to have a single wine climate, grape or style. In this episode of The Wine Lab, Andreea travels…
- From Seawater to Bullock’s Blood: A Strange History of Wine · 21 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] For thousands of years, winemakers have been trying to solve the same problems: wines that were too acidic, cloudy, unstable…
- Thomas Jefferson: President, Wine Geek, Failed Winemaker · 17 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Thomas Jefferson knew his Bordeaux, traveled through European wine regions taking meticulous notes, ordered Château Lafite directly…
- Sweetness in Wine: What the Numbers Don’t Tell You · 17 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] 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…
- Pop, Twist, or Pull: What’s Closing Your Wine? · 21 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Cork or screw cap? For many wine drinkers, the answer feels surprisingly personal. In this episode of The Wine Lab, we explore the…
- What’s in a name? That which we call Muscat by any other name would smell as sweet · 32 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Why is Pinot named after a pine cone? What makes Tempranillo “the little early one”? Why does Saperavi mean “the dyeing grape,” and…
- Rioja Wines Between Barrels, Branding, and the Bottle · 27 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Rioja is famous for Tempranillo, oak barrels, and the familiar classifications Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva. But behind those…
- Alsace: White Wine with History, Acidity, and Soul · 22 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Alsace is one of France’s most distinctive wine regions: deeply French, shaped by Germanic influence, and known for aromatic white…
- A River Runs Through It: The Wines of the Loire Valley · 31 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] In this episode of The Wine Lab, we travel through the Loire Valley, one of France’s most diverse and historically layered wine…
- Burgundy Explained: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and the Power of Place · 26 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] 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…
- Bordeaux Wines Beyond the Château: Grapes, Climate, and Blending · 26 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Bordeaux is one of the most influential wine regions in the world, but it can also feel intimidating. In this episode of The Wine…
- Grip, Weight, and Freshness: Understanding Wine Mouthfeel · 27 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Wine is usually described through aroma and flavor, but some of its most important qualities are physical. This episode of The Wine…
- A Rosé by Any Other Name Would Taste as Sweet...or Dry · 10 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] 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…
- Wait, Wine Isn’t Always Vegan? · 15 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] Episode description Wine seems like one of the most plant-based products imaginable, so why are some wines not considered vegan? In…
- Ashes in the Glass: Smoke Taint and the New Reality of Wine · 13 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] What happens when wildfire smoke becomes part of the story of a wine? In this episode of The Wine Lab, Dr. Andreea Botezatu explores…
- Rotten Egg, Burnt Rubber, and Other Ways Wine Can Misbehave · 17 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] What does it mean when a wine smells like rotten egg, burnt rubber, cabbage, garlic, or canned corn? In this episode of The Wine…
- Women and Wine: From Ritual to Research · 16 minSend me your thoughts at [email protected] This episode of The Wine Lab explores the long and layered history of women in wine. We move through ancient cultures, literature…
