The month’s column in More Magazine focuses on wines made by or endorsed by celebrities such as Arlene Dickinson, Sonja Smits and Dan Aykroyd. Surprisingly, these are well-made wines and range widely in price. Pair them with your favourite movie or television series featuring these stars …
Culture & Wit
Wine Quotes Part 5: Wit, Wine and Whimsy
Here’s the latest batch of wine wit and scribblings that folks have sent me. Love the irreverence in some of these … You’ll find Round 4 of the wine quotes here.
Wine Quotes: Funny, Philosophical and Philandering
Round #3 of those wine-soaked sips of wisdom … you’ll find round 1 and round 2 here if you’re thirsting for more. As you can see above, well-dressed, attractive people in a bar somewhere are enjoying them. Cheers, Natalie In beer there’s strength; In wine there’s wisdom; In water there’s bacteria. You haven’t drunk too much wine if you can still lie on the floor without holding on. ~ Dean Martin Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin. ~ Napoleon Gentlemen, in the little moment that remains to us between the […]
Pairing Wine and Stages of a Relationship from Heartbreak to Courtship
I had fun recommending these wine pairings with different stages of a relationship for Curve Magazine… Though Natalie MacLean is about as sensitive to her wines as the average parent is to her children, she still manages to tackle this seemingly snobby, daunting and inaccessible subject with a lighthearted sense of humor that other wine writers sorely lack. Poetic but still down-to-earth, MacLean’s writing is as addictive as her subject itself. Her journey in pursuit of great wine began with an introductory wine appreciation course, and has since brought her to vineyards around the world, as well as to the […]
Social Media & Wine
“You people,” sighed the Silicon Scout, shaking his head. “You and your websites. The web is like, so over.” We sit on a non-profit board of directors together, the Scout and I. He’s one of the guys known to technology marketers as “early adopters.” The first guy with a cellphone, a fax machine, an MP3 player. The first guy with an infrared mouse for his computer. The first guy to send you photos he took on his phone. (On his phone?) The Scout is considerably younger than most of us — well, he would be, wouldn’t he? — and during […]
Louis Roederer Awards
Decanter contributors were lauded for their efforts at the 2009 Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards in London last night. Margaret Rand, a previous winner of Roederer’s Champagne Writer of the Year, was named Feature Writer of the Year for her articles in Decanter, and specialist wine photographer Jon Wyand was given the Artistry of Wine Award. Tom Stevenson, the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) Regional Chair for Champagne, won the Champagne Writer of the Year while Decanter contributor Tim Atkin MW won the Wine Columnist of the Year Award for his pieces in The Observer, Intelligent Life and Off […]
Wine & Life
What goes with death row? How about a silky, fleshy pinot noir from Burgundy? Natalie MacLean can do half of the food and drink thing (see Question No. 7) and has to keep fending off the FedEx guy, who often hints he would like to come in (No. 18). Sommelier and wine writer Natalie MacLean got her start with half a bottle of syrupy sparkling wine behind the shed at a high school dance. Perhaps there’s hope yet for us all. 1. What comment most often appeared on your report cards? “Enjoys writing stories.” I also couldn’t resist a good […]
Wine Trends
Today’s wine drinker is not who you might expect. You’ll still find ladies-who-lunch sipping their Chardonnays and snooty “cork dorks” sniffing out barnyard aromas in Burgundies from obscure wineries. But today’s wine drinker is also a 20-year-old uncorking a Chianti for the first time, a young professional enjoying a food-friendly Riesling, a mid-lifer embarking on a wine country adventure and the retiree sharing a half-litre of B.C. red in a pub. In short, today’s wine drinker is everyone you know. “There’s no doubt that Canada is now a wine-drinking, wine-loving nation,” says Natalie MacLean, the Ottawa-based editor of the wine […]
Ottawa Wine Scene
Ottawa has become a city with a passion for the grape. You see it in the growing number of restaurants offering menus and special dinners paired with wine and the longer wine lists at even small eateries. A record crowd — 26,000 last year — is expected to attend next week’s annual Ottawa Food and Wine Show. “I don’t know of one new restaurant that doesn’t have a sommelier and the intention to make wine a major part of what it offers,” says Victor Harradine, director of partnerships and outreach for Algonquin College’s sommelier certificate program. Indeed, it’s that program […]
Wine Blogs
Q. William S Burroughs said that, in a revolution, those who control the media control events. Today, wine blogs seem to be revolutionising wine. Do you agree? A. Yes and no. Blogs expand the discussion beyond traditional media, allowing more drinkers and self- appointed critics to comment, but do more opinions mean more democracy or more noise? Most blog postings aren’t edited the way newspapers or magazines are, and while that can be liberating, it can also be a recipe for inaccuracy and unfairness. Overall, I think blogs are a good thing, but there will be a major shake-out in […]
