No. 03 — Editorial

Specific, sourced, and never decorative.

Wine writing has a cliché problem. CellarIQ has rules instead — about what we'll say, what we won't, who we name, what we cite, and what we do when we get something wrong. These are the editorial standards every page on the site is held to.

Voice

We write the way a good local would talk to a sceptical friend over a coffee. Specific where vague would be easier. Honest about trade-offs. Confident about what we know and quiet about what we don't.

What we use:

• Concrete facts — "Sydney Royal Wine Show gold 2023 and 2024"
• Specific guidance — "Book the 11am slot — quieter than weekends"
• Honest trade-offs — "Premium experience requires 48-hour booking; walk-ins limited to standard tasting"
• Direct language — short sentences, plain words, active voice

What we avoid:

• Tasting-note clichés — "notes of dark cherry on the palate", "long lingering finish", "elegant structure"
• Tourism-brochure language — "nestled in the heart of", "boutique gem", "hidden treasure"
• Vague superlatives without scoring backing — "one of the best", "must-visit", "unmissable"
• Industry jargon that excludes the casual visitor

What we publish

On a winery profile. Every winery profile is built from structured data — varietals, hours, experiences, accessibility, food offering, awards. The narrative sections (winemaker profile, cellar door experience, what to order) draw on the same underlying data and are written to summarise, not to embellish.

In a Cellar Door Intelligence Report. The 12-page report goes deeper — region context, winemaker history, wine portfolio analysis, the cellar door experience in detail, a best-fit visitor recommendation, a what-to-order panel, and a practical visit guide. Every claim is footnoted to a source listed at the end.

On the blog. Three editorial pieces a week, drawing on the same data underneath the rest of the site. Topics are chosen based on what visitors are searching for and what the data has to say back. Every claim is sourced.

What we will not publish

Anything we cannot source. If we cannot trace a claim back to a public, verifiable source, we do not publish it. A winemaker bio we cannot verify is omitted, not invented. A tasting note we have no basis for is omitted, not approximated.

Anything from a paid placement. CellarIQ subscriptions buy editorial control over a winery's own profile — bio, gallery, experience descriptions — within the bounds of these standards. They do not buy higher scores, favourable language, or hidden promotion in editorial content. Sponsored content, if we ever introduce it, will be clearly labelled and visually distinct from editorial.

Anything that violates a winery's legitimate confidentiality. We do not publish staff names, internal commercial details, or anything a winery has reasonably asked us not to surface. Public information remains public; private information stays private.

Anything we cannot defend out of context. A claim that survives the visitor reading it on CellarIQ should also survive being repeated, slightly out of context, in a generated search answer. We write with that downstream in mind.

Names and identity

Winemakers and owners. Where a winemaker or owner is named on a winery profile, we use their preferred professional title — Winemaker, Chief Winemaker, Owner-Winemaker, Founder. We do not invent biographies. Where we don't know something biographical, we leave it out.

Wineries that change ownership. When a winery changes ownership or winemaker, we update the profile within 14 days of public announcement. The previous profile is preserved in the corrections log where the change is material.

Cultural and identity respect. Where a winery's heritage, family story, or cultural identity is part of its public presentation, we describe it as the winery itself presents it. We do not embellish, romanticise, or simplify.

Corrections

We correct a factual error of any size, a score whose underlying input was wrong, a claim attributed to a source that does not in fact support it, or a description a winery substantiates as inaccurate.

When we correct, the page is updated within 48 hours of verification, a Correction issued note appears on the page for 30 days, and the change is recorded in the corrections log with the original claim, the corrected claim, the date, and the source that drove the correction.

A factual update that reflects new information — a winery's hours changing, a new vintage release — is an update, not a correction. The page is updated; the corrections log is not invoked.

Masthead

CellarIQ is part of ToraDigm, a portfolio of intelligence platforms.

• Founder & Editor — Tara Prakash Lama
• Editorial standards reviewed — quarterly
• Methodology reviewed — annually, or when material changes are required

For editorial enquiries and corrections, write to editorial@cellariq.com.au. For general contact, use the contact page.

What we are, and what we aren't

CellarIQ is a wine tourism intelligence platform. It is not a wine critic platform, a booking engine, a marketplace, or an advertising network. It does not review wines individually. It does not sell wines. It does not earn commission on bookings made through partner wineries. Where a winery pays for a subscription, the subscription buys editorial control over its own profile and access to operational tools — never editorial favour.

Our local presence in the Hunter Valley — Pie Hole Cessnock and Pie Hole Nulkaba, both operated by the same founder — is disclosed openly on the About page. We have working relationships with wineries that supply or are supplied by Pie Hole, and where those relationships could affect editorial coverage, we declare the relationship in the relevant entry.

These standards · Last reviewed November 2026. See also the methodology, our sources, the corrections log, and the About page.