A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae or plastic containers. In an active wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. In contrast, passive wine cellars are not climate-controlled, and are usually built underground to reduce temperature swings. An aboveground wine cellar is often called a wine room, while a small wine cellar (less than 500 bottles) is sometimes termed a wine closet.

Wine cellars protect alcoholic beverages from potentially harmful external influences, providing darkness and a constant temperature. Wine is a natural, perishable food product. Left exposed to heat, light, vibration or fluctuations in temperature and humidity, all types of wine can spoil. When properly stored, wines not only maintain their quality but many actually improve in aroma, flavor, and complexity as they mature.

Wine can be stored satisfactorily between 7–18 °C (45–64 °F) as long as any variations are gradual. A temperature of 13 °C (55 °F), much like what is found in the caves used to store wine in France, is ideal for both short-term storage and long-term aging of wine. Note that wine generally matures differently and more slowly at a lower temperature than it does at a higher temperature. When the temperature swings are significant, 14 degrees or more, it will cause the wine to breathe through the cork which significantly speeds up the aging process. Between 10–14 °C (50–57 °F), wines will age normally.

George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War (1914–1918) until his death in 1936.

George was a grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. From 1877 to 1891, he served in the Royal Navy. On the death of Victoria in 1901, George's father became King Edward VII, and George was made Prince of Wales. On his father's death in 1910, he succeeded as King-Emperor of the British Empire. He was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar.

As a result of the First World War, other empires in Europe fell while his expanded to its greatest extent. In 1917, he became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected House of Commons of the United Kingdom over the unelected House of Lords. In 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent kingdoms within the Commonwealth of Nations. He was plagued by illness throughout much of his later reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.

Aleksandar Živojinović, OC, (born August 27, 1953) better known by his stage name Alex Lifeson, is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist of the Canadian rock band Rush. In the summer of 1968, Lifeson founded the band that would become Rush with friend and drummer John Rutsey. He has been an integral member of the band ever since.

For Rush, Lifeson plays electric and acoustic guitars as well as other stringed instruments such as mandola, mandolin, and bouzouki. He also performs backing vocals in live performances, and occasionally plays keyboards and bass pedal synthesizers. During live performances, Lifeson, like the other members of Rush, performs real-time triggering of sampled instruments, concurrently with his guitar playing. The bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with Rush, although Lifeson has contributed to a body of work outside of the band as well. Aside from music, Lifeson is part owner of the Toronto restaurant The Orbit Room, and is a licensed aircraft pilot.

Mark Oldman (born Mark Stanford Oldman, January 5, 1969) is an American entrepreneur and wine writer. He is the wine expert for Pottery Barn and wine columnist for the Food Network. Oldman was called the "ideal mix of wine connoisseur, showman, and everyday dude" by Publishers Weekly and his approach was described as "wine speak without the geek" by Bon Appétit. He has twice won the Georges Duboeuf Best Wine Book of the Year Award.

In 2010, Oldman released Oldman’s Brave New World of Wine, published by W.W. Norton. The book focuses on helping readers make the most of the unprecedented diversity of wines now available. It details several dozen wine types of moderate cost and maximum appeal, and includes the exclusive wine picks of oenophiles such as Jodie Foster, Hilary Swank, Antonio Banderas, John Lithgow, and Guy Fieri.

Oldman's Brave New World of Wine won the 2011 Georges Duboeuf Best New Wine Book of the Year Award. Mediabistro.com wrote of Oldman's book deal with Norton.

In 2005 Oldman wrote Oldman’s Guide to Outsmarting Wine, published by Penguin Books and winner of the Georges Duboeuf Best Wine Book Award.

Denny Zeitlin (born 10 April 1938, Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz pianist and composer, and a clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. He has recorded more than 30 albums, including more than 100 original compositions, and was a first place winner of the Down Beat International Jazz Critics Poll in 1965 and 1974.

Zeitlin grew up in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. He began improvising on the piano at age two and was composing before elementary school. His father was a radiologist who played piano by ear. His mother was a speech pathologist and his first piano teacher. He began formal study in Western classical music at age six, switching to jazz in the eighth grade. In high school, he played professionally in and around Chicago, and by college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was playing with Ira Sullivan, Johnny Griffin, Wes Montgomery, Joe Farrell, Wilbur Ware, and Bob Cranshaw, among others. Mentors included pianist Billy Taylor and George Russell, while pianist Bill Evans, an early supporter, frequently recorded Zeitlin's composition "Quiet Now" and made it the title track of a 1970 album.