Sulfites in Wine: Preservative, Scapegoat, or Both?
What do sulfites do in wine? Understand preservation, label claims and sensitivity—and what research can and cannot say about wine headaches.
Cellar Journal
Notes from the cellar.
Orange Wine Is a Method, Not a Flavor: What Skin Contact Changes
What is orange wine? Discover how white-grape skin contact changes color, aroma and texture—and why amber does not mean natural, sweet or faulty.
Natural Wine Is Not One Thing: What “Minimal Intervention” Actually Tells You
What is natural wine? Explore wild fermentation, sulfites and filtration—and learn what “minimal intervention” can and cannot tell you about a bottle.
What Makes a Wine Taste Like Its Place: Typicity, Technique, or Expectation?
Can wine really taste of place? Explore terroir, typicity, winemaking, and expectation—and learn what regional character can and cannot prove.
Tignanello and the Wines That Changed the Rules: What “Super Tuscan” Really Means
Tignanello exposed the distance between legal classification and bottle quality. Learn what “Super Tuscan” really means—and what the term cannot tell you.
Is It Really the Grape on the Label? How DNA Is Rewriting Wine History
A grape name can hide synonyms, old mistakes, or genetic surprises. Learn how DNA identifies vines—and what it still cannot prove about the wine.
The Same Place, a Different Wine: How Climate Change Is Rewriting Vintages
How is climate change altering wine vintages? Learn why harvest dates, ripeness, frost, drought, and grower decisions make old vintage rules less reliable.
Sun, Slope, and Aspect: How Vineyard Exposure Shapes Ripeness
Why do vineyard direction and slope matter? Learn how sunlight, heat, airflow, water, altitude, and canopy shape grape ripening—and why no aspect always wins.
Does the Glass Change the Wine—or Just What You Perceive?
Can wine glass shape change aroma and flavor? See how headspace, temperature, swirling, rim, and expectation affect the same wine—and where claims go too far.
From Purple to Garnet: Why Red Wine Changes Color as It Ages
Why does red wine turn from purple to garnet or brick? Learn how anthocyanins, tannins, pH, oxygen, and storage reshape color over time.
Does the Fridge Ruin Wine? A Science-Based Guide for Open and Unopened Bottles
Should opened red wine go in the fridge? Learn how temperature, oxygen, closures, and time affect open and unopened bottles.
Minerality in Wine: Stone, Salt, or a Sensory Metaphor?
What does minerality in wine really mean? Separate flint, salinity, acidity, texture, and soil influence from the myth of tasting rocks.
From Grape to Glass: Where Wine Aromas Really Come From
Why can wine smell like roses, grapefruit, butter, vanilla, or leather when none were added? Follow aroma from grape precursors through fermentation and age.
How to Describe Wine Aromas Without Guessing
Why can a wine aroma feel familiar yet resist a name? Learn what odor science shows and use a practical method to describe wine with confidence.
Welcome to the Cellar Journal
Wine without the performance: a journal about aroma, science, memory, bottles, and the quiet confidence to choose what you actually enjoy.