Watch Breakfast Television video here We often chat about pairing wine and food, but what about pairing bottles with books, especially when we love to snuggle up with a great read this fall? Here with her pairings is Natalie MacLean, author of the national bestseller Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much. Welcome, Natalie. Great to be here! What’s the first pairing you recommend? In 101 Fascinating Canadian Music Facts, David McPherson shares lots of fun trivia such as the hit that launched Frank Sinatra’s career “I’ll Never Smile Again,” […]
Author: Natalie MacLean
The Best Gamay Wines to Buy Now + Food Pairings (Video)
Now let’s chat about a summer red wine. What is the Gamay grape and why has it had a less-than-stellar reputation in the past? Gamay, the grape most famously associated with Beaujolais, has suffered the same reputation as it’s parent wine: the Rodney Dangerfield of wine. It often gets no respect. It’s been stigmatized as cheap and cheerful, with a banana bubble-gum flavour, mostly due to Beaujolais Nouveau, which is released on the third Thursday of November each year, only weeks after the harvest. That’s an ingenious cash flow concept for winemakers rather than tying up the wine in barrels […]
Best LCBO Wine Reviews: Vintages Ratings April 13, 2024
You can access the wines that I reviewed as a text wine list with my complete tasting notes, scores, food matches. If you are a Paid Member, you can add my wine picks to your custom shopping list with one click and access that list on your smartphone to find the stock for each wine in your closest LCBO store. You can also see my wine reviews for March 30th. These are just some of the benefits of supporting out wine community as a Paid Member. Inventory stock numbers are usually posted online a day or two before the release based on the LCBO doing so. Curious about […]
Pairing Bestselling Books With Best-Cellaring Wines
We’re back with Natalie MacLean. You can watch our first segment on book and bottle pairings here. This time we’re going outside the wine category of books with these pairings. What do you have for us first? We’re starting with one of my favorite authors, Candace Bushnell, who wrote this book, Is There Still Sex and the City? a fantastic follow-up to her blockbuster hit, TV series, several movies and now a theatrical production. I’d pair this book with this Rosé sparkling wine from La Marca because it’s just fabulous, as the four women in the […]
4 Blockbuster Books and Bottles to Celebrate World Book Day
World Book Day is April 23rd, and you might like to toast your love of reading with a great book and bottle pairing. Here with her tips is Natalie MacLean, who is the author of the upcoming memoir Wine Witch on Fire. Welcome Natalie. What do you recommend first? I have Mary Soderstrom’s book, Against the Seas, which is about what we can learn about coping with rising sea levels from ancient times. As glaciers melt within a few decades due to climate change, sea levels around the world may rise and coastal cities could be […]
Wines of Jura and the French Alps with Wink Lorch: From Ski Resorts to Worldwide Sensation
Introduction What is it about wines from the French Alps and Jura that makes them so different from any other wine region in the world? How has climate change impacted wines in the region? How did their perception as “ski resort wines” negatively impact Jura and Savoie wineries? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with author Wink Lorch. You can find the wines we discussed here. Giveaway One of you will win a copy of Wink Lorch’s terrific book about the wines of Jura and the French Alps. How to Win To qualify, all […]
How are Organic, Biodynamic, Sustainable, Vegan and Vegetarian Wines Different?
With April being Earth Month, it’s the perfect time to get a lesson in environmentally-conscious wines. Today we’re raising a glass to Mother Nature with Natalie MacLean who offers Canada’s most popular online wine classes. Welcome, Natalie! There are several ways that wine can be made in a more environmentally-conscious way. We’re going to focus on a few of them today, starting with vegan and vegetarian wine. Natalie, this is blowing my mind because I assumed all wine was vegan! What makes wine not vegan-friendly? · It’s all in the clarifying—the removal of the particles which create cloudiness. · Fining […]
Wine and Lamb, Brisket, Asparagus, Chocolate – Readers Digest Magazine
I imagined all those thirsty readers in doctors’ and dentists’ offices when I wrote my first column for Readers Digest Magazine in April. I hoped that by thinking about wine as they waited for a root canal or a vaccine they would be a little distracted with thoughts of a mouth-watering wine for lamb or brisket. I love the approach of this magazine: practical, short sips of info you can use now. I guess that’s why it has more than 7 million readers. They’ll drink to that! […]
Video: Which Wines for Turkey, Cranberry Sauce and Pumpkin Pie?
CTV’s Your Morning Host Ben Mulroney and chat about which wines to pair with your holiday turkey dinner, from appetizers and the big bird to side dishes and dessert. Happy holidays! Natalie Start with an aperitif As the heady aroma of the turkey wafts through the house, and sounds of Miracle on 34th Street come from the livingroom, offer family and friends an aperitif. This pre-dinner drink will whet their appetites before they sit down to the table. An excellent choice is a chilled dry sherry. Its nutty flavours go well with spiced nuts, olives, cheese and other pre-dinner […]
Books & Wines With Great Structure & Finish
We often chat about pairing wine and food, but what about pairing bottles with books? You can also watch part two of our book and bottle pairings from CTV yesterday. What’s the first pairing you recommend? We’re starting with one of my favorite wine books, The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil. It’s sold more than a half a million copies worldwide and is a go-to reference book that’s also engagingly well-written. Karen lives in Napa Valley, so I’d pair this book with this full-bodied, complex Cabernet Sauvignon from Charles Krug, Napa Valley’s oldest winery […]
