Why does wine taste the way it does? Why does Cabernet smell like blackcurrant? Or Syrah like pepper? Or Beaujolais like...bananas?!

In this intriguing show our genial, white-coated guide is wine chemist and sensory scientist Gus Zhu, the first Chinese Master of Wine. As he says, 'Behind every glass of wine, there is science.'

In terms of chemistry, wine is one of the most complex solutions on the planet. Not only that, but human senses are notoriously complicated and variable. It all makes answering the question of why wine tastes the way it does...quite tricky.

But do not fear - there's plenty to learn and enjoy in this episode, and we touch on things as varied as flowers, cigarettes, farting, petrol, AI, soap, saliva, whisky, urine and strawberry-flavoured yoghurt.

NB: you can get 15% off Gus' brilliant new book (Behind the Glass: The Chemical and Sensorial Terroir of Wine Tasting) by using the code WINEBLAST15 at www.academieduvinlibrary.com

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E9 - Lessons in Wine Chemistry

Instagram: @susieandpeter

Is it a white? Is it a red?! Is it a rosé??!!

Or is our WINE OF THE YEAR none (or all) of the above...because it is, quite simply, pure gold?

Welcome to our Wines of the Year show, an annual favourite where we look back over the past year, not always entirely seriously, and raise many a glass in the process.

We recap on key news, play Guess the Missing Word in the Wine Headline, share listener input...and then recommend the wines which have made the biggest impression on us this year, from a great value red and white pair, a left-field fizz, a hot-shot producer of the year...culminating in a truly epic Wine of the Year.

Along the way we talk robots, beefing up Burgundy, tipsy shrews, BBQ sauce, dinosaurs, sherry trifle, Beethoven, childish protests and a long-dead Roman.

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E8 - Our Wines of the Year (2024)

Instagram: @susieandpeter

There's a revolution going on in the vineyards. It's coming to a glass near you soon. And it could change the world of wine forever.

We're talking super vines. Bionic vines. PIWIs. Resistant vines. Hybrids. TEA vines - the new generation, 'assisted evolution' kit. Whatever you want to call them - there's a new breed of grape vines spreading fast all over the wine world, from Champagne to Piedmont, fuelled by the urgent need to reduce vineyard treatments and face up to climate change.

In this show we talk to wine growers and researchers at the cutting edge of this fast-evolving field - Nicola Biasi, Dr Riccardo Velasco, Professor Mario Pezzotti and Hugo Drappier. If that isn't enough, we also have some BREAKING NEWS for you.

The criticism often levelled at PIWI or resistant vines is that they don't make very nice wines. We challenge that notion with a tasting of our own - which includes some great value recommendations you can try out too (including a £6 bargain at Tesco...)

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E7 - The Vines of the Future

Instagram: @susieandpeter

This show's got everything. It's got deliciously unexpected wine discoveries. It's got live music. It's even got a donkey. You can't ask for more than that.

As for how that all comes together...well, you'll just have to listen, won't you?!

This episode's all about Portugal's white wines, the best of which are astonishingly good and different and worthwhile (and, relatively speaking, inexpensive). Join us as we explore why this is, from Vinho Verde to the Douro, Dão, Alentejo and beyond, with the help of top-notch producers Tiago Mendes and Daniel Niepoort, plus plenty of open bottles.

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E6 - Portugal's Great Whites

Instagram: @susieandpeter

Ladybug poo. Cheesy feet. Mould. Boiled eggs. Cabbage. Drains. Vomit. Nail varnish remover. Dead mouse...

Yes, you can find all these noxious aromas in a glass of wine. They are very real - and in this episode we put our bodies on the line as we blind taste through all these horrors and more, to answer the big questions and ensure you know your stuff. (Because life is too short for faulty wine.)

So what are the main wine faults? How can you spot them? Is it true some are becoming more common? Why do they happen? What can you do about it? And dead mouse...really??!!

The answers may surprise and shock you. We have Dutch sensory scientist Sietze Wijma in the hot-seat, serving us wines spiked with taints to bring these faults to life. We give our six Top Wine Taint Tips - and explain how to check your wine properly. Which, as we reveal, can actually be a matter of life and death.

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E5 - Tainted Love: Wine Faults

Instagram: @susieandpeter

China has the world's third biggest vineyard and a long history with fermentation and booze. So what's Chinese wine like? Why do we not see more of it outside China? And why are some people predicting big things for Chinese wine in the future?

Answers to all this and more flow thick and fast in this intriguing episode, the result of Susie's recent wine trip to China during which she sat down to record with expert insiders Li Demei and Natalie Wang. We also taste several Chinese wines and deliver our verdict on where the country's wines are right now. Ultimately, we ask: is this an inflection point for Chinese wine?

Along the way we discuss things as varied as burying vines, baijiu, karaoke, geopolitical hot potatoes, Marselan, heavy bottles, 'half-juice', poetry, pandas, pigswill, pricing and horses on travellators...

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E4 - Chinese Wine: What's the Deal?

Instagram: @susieandpeter

Consider this our call to arms for wine. Where we grapple heroically with the thorny issue of wine and health, calling out misinformation and over-reach, and learn that the truth is always complex, potentially positive - but often mis-represented. This makes us angry and frustrated. And you should feel the same too.

You may also feel confused or jaded by this topic. Understandably so. But join us and we will hopefully clear things up AND imbue you with renewed vigour to fight the good fight. Because this is about things we all hold dear - freedom, fairness and our health and personal pleasure. For wine lovers, this is not a time to stay silent.

Helping us shed light on this contentious topic are Christopher Snowdon from the Institute of Economic Affairs and Dr Laura Catena, former emergency physician in San Francisco, now head of respected Argentine winery Catena Zapata. Also cited are Tim Stockwell, Sir David Spiegelhalter, Kenneth Mukamal, Eric B Rimm and Edward Slingerland.

Along the way we talk dogs, megaphones, the J-shaped curve, bacon sandwiches, zombie arguments and quantifying joy. We even find time to recommend some delicious wines.

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E3 - Life or Death? On Wine and Health

Instagram: @susieandpeter

A hop, skip and jump away from Sydney, the Hunter Valley is renowned as the birthplace of Australian wine. And yet this is far from ideal wine territory: hot, sticky, often stormy. So how did this tiny wine region come to play such an outsize role in Ozzie wine’s history and evolution?

Join us to find out why as we chew the cud with Hunter legend Bruce Tyrrell (sample quote: ‘I’m the luckiest man in the wine industry’) and winemaker Xanthe Hatcher (‘The Hunter’s a region of extremes…’) We touch on everything from French pick-pockets to oysters and, 'oblivion for a dollar fifty'.

We explore how Hunter Semillon became an idiosyncratic global classic whose naturally low alcohol, refreshing, distinctive and food-friendly style paradoxically mean it’s well suited to the wine drinkers of today. (But it wasn’t always going to be this way – at one stage the wines had enough acidity, ‘to take the enamel off your teeth!’)

And we also look beyond Semillon to other Hunter staples like Chardonnay and Shiraz as well as future bets like Fiano.

Thanks to the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association and Wine Australia for sponsoring this episode. As ever, all opinions and recommendations are entirely our own. And thanks to you for tuning in.

We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E2 - Hunter Valley: History to High Jinks

Instagram: @susieandpeter

It's a biggie. Our Chile Wines of the Year 2024 - a celebration and exploration of this slender South American nation's wines. And what's coming up may surprise you. So if you think you know Chilean wine - be prepared to think again.

We discuss vineyards planted before the French revolution, sensational value Pinot Noir (the holy grail!), flor-aged Semillon, a Pinot Gris inspired by the great orange wines of Friuli, wines you 'eat' rather than drink and old-vine País made, 'as if it were the finest Pinot Noir from Burgundy'.

We hear from Chilean wine luminaries including Felipe Marin, Ricardo Baettig, Ana María Cumsille, François Massoc, Eduardo Chadwick, Matías Ríos and Edgard Carter. (Told you it was big.) There's plenty of opinion, insight, top tips. Even the odd 'light-house wine' and inflection point.

Oh, and we also blow our own trumpets a bit after this podcast WON THE 67 PALL MALL GLOBAL WINE COMMUNICATOR AWARD!!

In case you're wondering, in this programme we also explain what this Chile Wines of the Year thing is. Essentially, we've chosen just over 100 wines to showcase just how diverse, delicious, fun, funky and fine modern Chilean wine is. We've also selected a few brilliant producers and wines for top awards.

This episode is produced in association with Wines of Chile. Please do also check out the accompanying Chile Wines of the Year 2024 report, packed full of information, opinion, ratings and top tips, which is free to download from our website via this link: Show notes for Wine Blast S6 E1 - Chile Wines of the Year 2024

Climate change is a worry. We get it. But how to do something positive about it, especially as a wine lover? After all, it's not easy knowing which wines to buy to support producers doing the right thing...

Which is where the IWCA comes in handy - International Wineries for Climate Action. This is a bunch of conscientious wine producers who have signed up to stringent, science-based carbon emission audits and committed to reaching net zero by 2050. As well as sharing info and generally being responsible about the environment.

It's ground-breaking stuff and in this episode we get the low-down on the IWCA and hear about ingenious schemes to combat climate change from Familia Torres president and IWCA co-founder Miguel A Torres (the legend!), Sogrape fourth generation member Mafalda Guedes and Ramuntxo Andonegui of Domaine Lafage in Roussillon. We also recommend our favourites from a recent IWCA 'low emission wine' tasting in London.

The word 'extinction' crops up. But so do the words 'resilience', 'happy', 'friendly' and, 'delicious'. So that's nice.

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode including full wine recommendations, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S5 E25 - Wines to Combat Climate Change

Instagram: @susieandpeter