ResearchScan curates global beverage research into practical weekly insights for wine and spirits producers
January 26, 2026 — For winemakers, staying competitive increasingly depends on understanding scientific research whether related to fermentation performance, raw material variability, sustainability, or flavour development. Yet the volume of academic publishing relevant to wine production has expanded rapidly, with new papers appearing every week across dozens of journals that most production teams do not have the time to monitor.
Launched in January 2026, ResearchScan (researchscan.news) is a new research intelligence platform designed to address that challenge. The free weekly newsletter scans more than 50 academic journals and databases, reviews between 400 and 600 new papers each week, and curates the most relevant findings into concise, plain-language summaries written for industry practitioners.
Each Thursday, subscribers receive 200-word summaries organised across 17 specialist categories, including wine and viticulture, fermentation and microbiology, cereals and malting, sustainability, sensory and flavour, engineering and technology, maturation, and packaging. While the platform also covers brewing and distilling, its cross-beverage approach is intended to surface research that is often applicable to winemaking but published outside traditional wine-focused journals.
“Some of the most practically useful research for winemakers isn’t only labelled as wine research,” said founder Jan Hodel-Keane, who holds a PhD from Heriot-Watt University. “Work on yeast metabolism, water use, process control, or analytics also comes from broader fermentation science, but it translates directly to winery operations.”
Rather than focusing on academic theory, ResearchScan summaries aim to highlight what was studied, why it matters, and how the findings could inform production decisions. In addition to the newsletter, ResearchScan now publishes a weekly online overview of all curated papers, providing readers with a searchable snapshot of current research themes across categories. This blog-style resource allows users to scan the full research landscape for a given week directly on the website (https://researchscan.news/blog), complementing the email summaries.
The newsletter is free to subscribe to, with no paywall. A low-cost premium option (€3.50 per month) provides access to a searchable archive of curated papers, allowing users to revisit research by topic over time. According to the company, subscribers are already based across six continents, including winemakers, production managers, R&D teams, consultants, and quality professionals.
As wineries face ongoing pressure to improve efficiency, quality, and sustainability while managing costs, tools that reduce the time required to stay informed are becoming increasingly relevant.
Further information and subscription details are available at researchscan.news.
