Natalie MacLean, editor of the award-winning wine newsletter at NatalieMacLean.com and author of Red, White and Drunk All Over helped AskMen.com learn about the extraordinary white wine Gewürztraminer. Gewürztraminer has historically been unfairly treated and ignored. This dry white wine calls Alsace home and despite its distinctive character, its more popular big brother Riesling largely overshadows it — “partly because Gewürztraminer is hard to say in a restaurant or liquor store,” says MacLean. Once you taste Gewürztraminer, however, you’ll either love it or hate it. Either way, there’s no way you can ignore this versatile wine or its lychee and […]
Steak & Wine
When it comes to steak, conventional wisdom says the color of your wine should match the color of your meat. But if you can’t bear to quaff yet another cabernet sauvignon with your beef, there are other options, including plenty that refute convention, says Natalie MacLean, a sommelier and wine writer. “Robust whites can also muscle in beside a steak,” she says. “If you’re tired of big, honkin’ reds, try a California chardonnay or a French blend of marsanne and rousanne. These toasty, aromatic whites highlight the smoky notes in the meat.” But avoid light-bodied whites, which can be overshadowed […]
Women & Wine 2
For too long, oenology (een-ology, the study of wine) was considered off-limits to the average American consumer. Wine knowledge was a carefully guarded male stronghold of stuffy sommeliers, grumpy English professors with big, red noses and the wealthy. But in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the wine industry began selling its products in the United States with a more inclusive approach. A methodical marketing scheme began with easily understood White Zinfandel. Wineries started selling people on Chardonnay and then Merlot, varietals that were easy to drink, whose names had a ring of sophistication. People took notice. It was a […]
Scoring Wine
I just finished a chapter in Red, White and Drunk all Over in which the author Natalie MacLean examines the “purely American phenomenon” of wine scores. Hugely interesting stuff, and very relevant to us Winos; the vast majority of us, I would hazard a guess, are influenced by those 100-point-scale ratings that we see taped up next to displays of wine in stores. Charged with a mandate to buy something relatively obscure (a bottle of Pinot Noir from Chile, lets say), and discovering two similarly-priced bottles at your local wine shop — both with positive reviews but one featuring a […]
Food & Wine 6
Oh man, are the Traveling Mamas big fans of wine writer Natalie MacLean. She’s a funny and informative writer, a four-time winner of the James Beard Journalism Awards, and she also was named the World’s Best Drink Writer at the World Food Media Awards (that’s just about the best name for an award). Natalie MacLean writes hilariously and self-effacingly in her book, Red, White, and Drunk All Over. This is a kind-of travel, kind-of drinking memoir, and I love it. Even better, she kindly answered some of our questions, and – my favorite – has put serious consideration into wine […]
Internet & Wine
Lucky for me, Red, White and Drunk All Over by Natalie MacLean was one of the first books I picked up when I started thinking about doing a wine blog. For MacLean, writing about wine is not an academic exercise, a parsing of the chemical responses upon the tongue, a conjugation of fruit groups or a diagram of geographical factors. Important though they are to figuring out how and why certain flavors and aromas play out on the senses, those elements alone are a flat description of a particular wine’s character. As MacLean explains in the chapter “The Making of […]
Cognition & Wine
Roots and brains Lalou Bize Leroy, a Burgundian winemaker, has a rallying call of ‘Respectez le terre!’ ‘I hate technology,’ she says, ‘it produces fake wines’ (in MacLean, 2007, p.30). She views vine roots, somewhat anthropomorphically, as brains. She recounts stories of her vines ‘withdrawing’ from chemical dependency when switched to a biodynamic approach, created by the Austrian ‘anthroposophist’ Rudolph Steiner in 1924. Steiner believed that agriculture should be in harmony with natural systems such as lunar cycles, for example by filling a cow’s horn with manure and then burying it amongst vines until the spring solstice. Many psychologists might […]
Pinot Noir
These five wines help set the mood. Better yet, they’re paired with recipes, so you’ve got five instant dinners. Beringer Third Century 2005 Pinot Noir, Central Coast, California(about $14) This bottle’s name refers to the fact that this winery is now operating in its third century–the company has been around since 1876. The Central Coast is similar to the cool climate of Burgundy, and the fruit shows the same characteristics of just-ripe fruit with an intoxicating undercurrent of earth and spice. (Though if you really like spicy, you might consider a Zinfandel instead.) Errazuriz Wild Ferment 2005 Pinot Noir, Casablanca […]
Travel & Wine Writing
Natalie MacLean is the author of the book Red, White and Drunk All Over. It doesn’t matter if you are new to the wine world or a seasoned wine drinker, you will likely enjoy Natalie’s entertaining book that takes readers on a fun journey “from grape to glass.” If you would like to learn more about wine, sign up for Natalie’s free newsletter Nat Decants. 1. You travel throughout your fabulous book Red, White and Drunk All Over as a sommelier experiencing the world of wine. Have you always been a traveler? Yes, I’ve always loved travel, something I inherited […]
Corked Wine
Corked doesn’t refer to bits of cork floating in your wine glass. Natural corks, made from the bark of cork trees grown in Spain and Portugal, can contain a chemical compound called “2, 4, 6 trichloranisole” or TCA. The wine interacts with TCA to create the taint and it’s estimated that 5-10% of natural corks are faulty this way, though that’s improving with more careful practices and better technology. Even a mild case of taint from natural corks strips wine of its expressive aromas and a severe one makes it smell like moldy cardboard. This defect is why screwcaps are […]
