Wine Marketing that Encourages Overdrinking + Sexism in Wine Tasting Tasting Notes

Natalie MacLean
May10th
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Introduction

How does slick wine marketing encourage us to drink too much? Has anything really changed in the wine industry in the last ten years since the incidents in the book took place? How is sexism still embedded in wine tasting notes today? What would I advise young women and men entering the wine business today?

I’ll be sharing those stories and more in this special episode of my podcast. My new memoir Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much just launched yesterday, May 9th in Canada. It will launch in the US and around the world June 6th, and it’s also available for pre-order now.

You can find the wines I mentioned here.

 

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Highlights

  • Why was it particularly difficult to face the challenges of divorce and defamation as the caregiver of a teenage son and an elderly mother?
  • While this book deals with serious issues, there’s lots of humour. How do you strike a balance between the two?
  • Do you approach things differently now than before?
  • Has anything really changed in the wine industry since that time?
  • What would you say to young women and men who want to enter the wine business?
  • What does that world without misogyny or sexism look like?
  • Can you share an example of how sexism is embedded in wine tasting notes?
  • What’s the difference between sexist, sexy, and sensual writing?
  • In the book, your partner calls you “princess,” and another writer calls you “sweetheart.” Are you bothered by these?
  • Throughout your memoir, you describe the slick marketing that encourages women to drink too much. Can you elaborate on this?
  • Why include stories of women behind wine labels?
  • You’re a supertaster. What does that mean?
  • If you could be a wine, which one would it be?
  • What was your most interesting wine experience?
  • Which wines do you enjoy drinking on your own time these days?
  • What does terroir mean to you?
  • What is a guilty pleasure when it comes to pairing wine and food?
  • What’s in your wine guide for book clubs, wine groups and individual readers, and where can we get it?
  • How can we find out more about the $397 Bonus Bundle with pre-orders and where to buy the book?
  • Are there any book launch events coming up?
  • For those who may be going through difficult times themselves, what advice do you have?
  • What’s next for you?

 

Start The Conversation: Click Below to Share These Wine Tips

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It’s hard to read the label from inside the bottle. - Natalie MacLean Natalie MacLean Click to tweet

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Wine was, and still is, the culturally accepted, modern-day Valium for stressed-out women. - Natalie MacLean Natalie MacLean Click to tweet

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My sense of thankless depletion was never soothed by a drink. It dulled the roar but not the whimper. - Natalie MacLean Natalie MacLean Click to tweet

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I don’t want to develop a thick skin in response to what happened; I want to stay thin-skinned, open and vulnerable. That’s the only way the love can come in. - Natalie MacLean Natalie MacLean Click to tweet

 

Resources

 

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Thirsty for more?

  • Sign up for my free online wine video class where I’ll walk you through The 5 Wine & Food Pairing Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Dinner (and how to fix them forever!)
  • You’ll find my books here, including Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines and Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.
  • The new audio edition of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass is now available on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com and other country-specific Amazon sites; iTunes.ca, iTunes.com and other country-specific iTunes sites; Audible.ca and Audible.com.

 

Transcript

Natalie MacLean (00:00):
If I could be a wine, it would definitely be Pinot Noir. It’s my favorite wine to drink because it’s bursting with flavor, but low in oak, alcohol, and tannin so you don’t fall asleep on the sofa at 7:00 PM. It also has this edgy, nervy acidity that makes it so vibrant, almost like it’s on the edge of a nervous collapse. I like wine and people who are like that. They’re far more interesting than those who are more stable. It’s a thin skin grape, and I also like that in wine and people. I don’t want to develop a thick skin in response to what happened. I want to stay thin-skinned, open and vulnerable. That’s the only way that the love can come in.

Do you have a thirst to learn about wine? Do you love stories about wonderfully obsessive people, hauntingly beautiful places and amusingly awkward social situations? Well, that’s the blend here on the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast. I’m your host, Natalie MacLean, and each week I share with you unfiltered conversations with celebrities in the wine world, as well as confessions from my own tipsy journey as I write my third book on this subject. I’m so glad you’re here. Now pass me that bottle please and let’s get started.

(01:30):
Welcome to episode 232. Which wines do I feature in my new book and why? How does slick wine marketing encourage us to drink too much? Has anything really changed in the wine industry in the last 10 years since the incidents in the book took place? How is sexism still embedded in wine tasting notes and reviews today? My first two wine books were very lighthearted. This third book deals with more serious issues, and yet it still has lots of humor and spoiler alert, a happy ending. However, how can you use humor without trivializing serious subjects and what would I advise young women and men entering the wine business today? I’ll be sharing those stories in this special episode of my podcast. My new memoir Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation. and Drinking Too Much just launched yesterday May 9th in Canada, and it will launch in the US and around the world June 6th though it’s available for pre-order now.

(02:52):
Interspersed with these stories, my amazing podcast editor Alexandra Stennett, will be sharing some new reviews of the book from early readers. I think they give more context to my own thoughts.

In the show notes at NatalieMacLean.com/232, I’ve posted a link to where you can buy a pre-ordered book online now no matter where you live. This is also where you’ll find all of the juicy bonuses you’ll get when you buy or pre-order the book. If you’d like to be part of the launch team, please let me know. This isn’t a big time commitment. I’d be asking you to do a few quick but important things over the next month. Even if you’ve not had a chance to read the book yet, you can still be part of this small but mighty group of people passionate about supporting the message in this book of hope, justice, and resilience. If you’re interested, please email me at [email protected]. Okay, on with the show,

(03:47):
You faced two traumatic events in one year, your divorce and an online attack that almost destroyed your career. Why was it particularly difficult to face these challenges as the caregiver of a teenage son and an elderly mother? As caregivers and mothers, we take on the world and don’t expect help from others. We’re superheroes, right? We’re the ones that others turn to for help rather than asking for it. My mother suffers from atrial fibrillation or AFib, an irregular heartbeat that can surge over 200 beats per minute. It can be fatal if it’s not managed and it can be exacerbated with stress. So I didn’t want to aggravate her condition by sharing my situation with her. My son was 14 at the time, grieving the breakup of our family and dealing with raging hormones. The sexist online attack wasn’t something I could discuss with him at that time, and that was one of the biggest mistakes that I write about in my memoir.

(04:47):
Keeping all the problems locked inside so as not to be a burden to others. After I cracked under that pressure and shared what was happening with my mother and partner, it changed my world. Not only did I have their support and love, but they also felt great about helping me rather than wondering why I was so stressed out.

While this book deals with serious issues, there’s lots of humor. How do you strike a balance between the two? Humor has always been my way of dealing with tough times, and perhaps that comes from my Celtic roots. We find levity even in darker moments, like the comment at one funeral about the deceased still showing up late. It’s a way of celebrating life by giving those you love. One last fond ripping.  But I didn’t want to trivialize the serious subjects, and yet it could not be one long, bleak narrative. We need comic relief in both memoir and life. Something has to brighten a book. When the subtitle is brought to you by all the dismal letter Ds, divorced, defamation, and drinking too much. the publisher’s marketing team insisted that we take out depression, destitution and delirium. Just kidding, they were never on the table. They say that comedy is pain plus time. I certainly couldn’t have injected humor into this book 10 years ago when I was in the middle of the situation, but now I can stand back with the wisdom of time and see how some of the more absurd things that happened border on the comical. For the reader though, this may sometimes feel bizarre. And that’s because they’re reading it and experiencing it for the first time as if it’s happening now. So I suggest reading the book at least twice with wine to allow that humour to marinate. That said, my humor has changed over the years. It used to be very quippy and a defense mechanism to keep from revealing my feelings. Now, I hope it’s a gentler approach that invites others in with a soft chuckle.

(06:29):

Do you approach things differently now than before? Well, the short and fast world of social media doesn’t leave room for nuance or complexity. Everything is black and white, a one word answer to a novel, but now I know that you can’t be defined by your extreme edges. You’re not the worst thing you’ve done nor the best thing, you’re everything in between. It’s in that gray zone that you find the shades of humanity. There are always two or more sides to every story and to every person. I dig deeper now when I write because I recognize there isn’t just one right answer and often the questions matter more.

Alexandra Stennett (07:26):
Here’s a review from Marula Paul, an early reader from London, England. After getting home last night, I finished this book at 4:00 AM. I was exhausted but wanted to know more. To say I loved it is an understatement. I had no desire to do anything but immerse myself in her world. As any good writer achieves, I saw myself in so much of what she described and wished I saw more. Tears, literally ran down my face. This experience was a very emotional one. It’s smart, funny, sad, honest, brave, informative, distressing, and hopeful. Five stars.

Natalie MacLean (08:07):
Has anything really changed since that time in the wine industry? This happened years before movie producer Harvey Weinstein and others were convicted of sexual assault and the Me Too movement, so there’s far greater awareness now of these issues. Universally, the restaurant industry has exposed the sexual harassment by celebrity chefs and restaurateurs such as Mario Batel, Ken Friedman, and others. The wine industry, however, is much smaller and less formalized than the restaurant industry. That makes it more prone to these abuses and less likely to admit them in such a clubby industry with a powerful social grapevine, pun intended, you can quickly be ostracized. More than 80% of US and Canadian wineries are tiny, producing less than 5,000 cases per year with fewer than 20 employees. According to industry statistics, most don’t have a human resources department, let alone a harassment policy. Even when there is one, it’s often not communicated to employees in the drinks business.

(09:13):
Like others, the cultural norms are established at the top entry level. Winemaker, sommelier, and other positions are apprenticeships with a mentor rather than conducted via group training. Even candidates with a college or university education must still apprentice. They’re often young and relying on their boss to refer them to their next position. These close one-on-one work relationships with great power differentials can be easily manipulated. A 2018 survey by the UK Hospitality Industry Union revealed that 89% of hospitality workers and 80% of female agricultural workers reported on the job sexual harassment, statistics that don’t even include other forms of abuse. As Karen McNeil, author of The Wine Bible has clarified, sexual misconduct is not about sex and is not mere misbehaviour. Quote, “It’s about using your gender to undermine, intimidate, or put someone in their place. It’s also about abusing your power to render someone else’s power useless”.

(10:22):
In 2020, the New York Times published Julia Moskin’s scathing multipage expose of the wine industry’s rampant sexism with 21 women reporting that they had been sexually harassed, manipulated, or assaulted by male Master
Sommeliers. The article noted that the abuse was a continuing problem of which the Court of Master Sommeliers’ leadership had long been aware. Women who had had relationships with the men were called somm suckers. The fallout was swift. Seven Master Sommeliers were suspended or stepped down for sexual misconduct, including the chairman of the organization. There were calls for the entire board of directors to resign and disband the court. Many of those interviewed in a series of follow up New York Times pieces believed that this was only the beginning for the last pale, stale male preserve mow imploding with its own Me Too revelations. So the short answer is that a lot has changed and we’re more aware of it, but a lot still needs to be done.

(11:25):
What would you say to young women and men who want to enter the wine business? On my podcast, when I interviewed Karen McNeil, I asked her what she’d advise young women to do entering the wine industry, but I believe her advice also is suited to young men. I was really asking for myself, as at the time I needed a new approach. So here’s what she said. “Be more serious about business and be ambitious. I can’t tell you how many business cards I have had from professional women who call themselves wine chicks, wine goddesses, wine divas, wine dolls. Language can marginalize.” Ouch. My email signature is Chief of Wine Happiness. As women were taught to be caregivers, which is easily manipulated. Is the desire to be liked or at least not to appear threatening, part of why women in the wine industry belittled their own skills and experience with cutesy names?

(12:25):
I asked her if we make wine more accessible with self-deprecating humor. Her response  “No, not unless you’re already in a position of power”. It’s true. We don’t see those monikers with men. Harvest hunks, wine warlocks or stainless steel studs.

Then there’s the title of this book Wine Witch on Fire. Language can marginalize, but it also can reclaim loss meaning. As I wrote my story, I wanted to counter the old narrative about wicked witches just as I wanted to be professional without depersonalizing myself. Karen McNeil told me that women also over-explain and second guess themselves. I call that talking past the sale. This is made worse with what Karen describes as an insidious and often subconscious form of harassment. “Being belittled, ignored, talked over, looked past, demeaned, interrupted, reprimanded, corrected or addressed as a junior, among countless other slight and abuses, it all takes a toll on anyone’s confidence”. There it was again, gaslighting. Both Karen and I make our living by giving our opinion on wine. The challenge is owning your expertise when you’re constantly undermined. As she said “Give a lot and ask for a lot. Take risks, adopt a professional business oriented tone of voice and dress the part. Take control when you can and when it’s appropriate”.

(13:59):
Karen’s words resonated with me, not just professionally but also personally. I realized it was time to take myself seriously and not be so jokey and deflective about my accomplishments. If I could start appreciating them more, perhaps I wouldn’t always be hunting for new ones. It was also time to rely on my own intuition. There are more than 500 million neurons in our stomach lining, which is why it’s often called the second brain. It’s also where 90% of serotonin is produced. I had to stop second guessing myself and trusting my own gut. It was the smart thing to do and it’s what I advised both young women and men entering the wine industry and other businesses.

(14:55):

What does a world without misogyny or sexism look like? A world without sexism and misogyny would be a world on merit where girls could dream and become who and what they want to be as women. In this world, we would believe people like Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford. It would be a world where I would pay the same as a man for a haircut and where I wouldn’t have to put my keys between my fingers when I walk in a parking lot at night. It would be a world where if I didn’t wear makeup, people wouldn’t ask me if I’m tired or sick. And I would choose when to smile, not when someone cat calls across the street to perk up darling. Sexism is so interlinked with racism, classism, and all the other isms that exist because some people believe they’re better than others. If all of that disappeared, we’d benefit from the contributions of so many more people rather than fighting injustice. We’d all have so much more time to learn and to create and to enjoy life.

(15:50):
One of my favorite writers, Virginia Woolf, captured this beautifully in 1929 with A Room of Her Own “When one reads of a witch being ducked or drowned, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and inglorious Jane Austin, some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moors mocked in mowed about the highways crazed with the torture that her gift had been put to. Indeed, I would venture to guess that anonymous who wrote so many poems without signing them was often a woman.

Alexandra Stennett (16:36):
Here’s a review from Luke Whittle, an early reader from Vancouver, British Columbia. Wine Witch on Fire is loaded with weighty themes such as social media group think, alcoholism, misogyny, and divorce. Natalie MacLean’s skill as a writer keeps it accessible, optimistic, and relatable. I want my daughter and son to read this when they’re old enough. Reading it inspired a great deal of feelings and thoughts. It’s not just a memoir, but a true work of art. Five stars.

Natalie MacLean (17:08):
Can you share an example of how sexism is embedded in wine tasting notes? Wines are sometimes described as either feminine, light bodied, smooth, supple, easy drinking or masculine, full bodied, muscular, complex. Even the assumption that feminine means something lighter than masculine is problematic, and while Chardonnay has often been described as blousey or slutty, I’ve never seen those same descriptors for a full-bodied red wine like Cabernet or Shiraz. As much as these sexist tasting notes repulsed me, they made me think of my own role in promoting gendered wine messages to women and to myself. Was I part of the industry’s marketing machine frequently toting the statistics about how important women are to the wine industry without talking much about the dangers. I wrote about women winemakers as though they represented a new breakthrough inequality when few owned their wineries and many faced workplace harassment. My culpability in these narratives has now become clear to me, but back then I couldn’t see it.It’s hard to read the label from inside the bottle.

(18:14):

What’s the difference between sexist, sexy, and sensual writing? I think there’s a big difference between sexist, sexy, and sensual writing. The first subjugates someone as purely a sexual object. The latter two talk about personal desire without doing that. The same standards should apply to both women and men, but I think we’re less comfortable traditionally with women expressing sexual desire, thus the cougar label or stalking sexual prey rather than just expressing a healthy sexual appetite as a mature woman. More often older women get stereotyped as having neither sexual desire nor sexual attraction. Thus the old hag or witch. I do however realize that even joking about the UPS delivery guys, kilt wearing heroes, hobbits or short hairy men was a double standard when I didn’t want my own body sexualized. It belied my insecurities as I looked for love again. I focused on height because at almost five 10 I felt too tall to be feminine, but I didn’t need a man to make me feel small and delicate. I needed to embrace my own powerful body.

In the book, your partner calls you princess and another writer calls you sweetheart. Are you bothered by these? I believe that intentions count a lot within personal and family relationships. Pet names usually come from a place of love and they may have existed for years before certain monikers have been deemed off putting. There’s no place though for demeaning names in the workplace. Whereas I used to laugh at off or ignore it, today I point out politely but firmly that I don’t appreciate being called honey. I do this not only for myself but also to raise awareness of these inappropriate names with those using them as well as for younger women who may not yet have the confidence to speak up.

(20:21):
I have less to lose if someone gets offended and I care a hell of a lot less now, too. Today I would say stop referring to my sexuality in the workplace. Comments like sorry you married, hey beautiful, or I wish I was 30 years younger as you lear at my breasts are a power play that you’d never use on another man. I don’t care if you’re a nice guy or from a different generation. You’re a journalist who should know better. I am here because of my professional achievements. I have a job to do, so get out of my way and keep your hairy hands off me.

Throughout your memoir, you describe the slick marketing that encourages women to drink too much. Can you elaborate on this? The message on some bottle labels is that women belong to a particular category. We’re vixens drawn to brands like Little Black Dress or Stiletto with their labels featuring short dresses, high heels, or red lips. Or were exhausted mothers buying wine such as Mommy Juice and Mommy’s Timeout to obliviate the stress of motherhood. If we’re not babes, we’re battle axes reaching for wine labels such as Mad Housewife with taglines like award thyself, the dishes can wait and dinner be damned. It seemed to me that antiquated societal beliefs about women had been turned into slogans.

Should we be laughing or raging at jokes that demean women? The marketing message is that women need to have a reason to drink. Whether it’s girls night, a fancy occasion or just getting through another day of exhaustion, it’s implied that we need permission to drink as we do when we buy things. There’s even a wine for sneaky shopping called White Lie with little lines stamped on the corks like this old thing, I got this on sale. We’re wallets, not women. We drink the cutesy, crappy wines that subsidize the good stuffed men drink. Wine was and still is the culturally accepted modern day Valium for women stressed out with their faces, bodies, spouses, kids, careers and housework. It’s all over Instagram. Vino is the ultimate soft filter to blunt all those feels. Don’t have time for meditation and yoga? Calm your central nervous system with this Cabernet. Wineries offer Vino Vinyasa yoga classes, detox then Retox. There’s a coloring book called My Mommy Drinks Wine and a women’s wine bar with a play space for children. All fun and games until it’s time to drive the kiddos home. Wine is positioned as less candied and more sophisticated than the cosmopolitans featured in Sex in the City. You can cloak your overindulgence with connoisseurship of artisanal, dry farmed, old vine, natural wines in a way that you could never do with that third cosmo. Some of my other favorite television shows like Scandal, the Good Wife, Dead to Me,  and Cougar Town showcased professional women who rewarded themselves with a glass of wine or three. Their oversized stemware reminded me of the Virginia Slim’s cigarette ads from the 1960s positioning them as torches of freedom for liberated women.

(23:36):
Conversely, wine is marketed to men as sophisticated and artisanal. No one asks a man why he wants a drink. He has one because he wants one. Several studies have revealed that many men embellish their wine expertise to impress others. British wine writer Hugh Johnson puts it best “Wine is like sex and that few men will admit to not knowing all about it”. According to a ridiculous stereotype, Bordeaux wine bottles with their square shoulders remind French winemakers of their stout wives,. The slender sloped Burgundy bottles bring to mind their mistresses. Wink, Wink. I’d always laughed off these narratives just as I did with my boozy quips about drinking too much. Now the jokes fell flat. Both the wine labels targeting women and labels that we slap on women themselves profit from powerlessness. As the frigid wife, I have been painted onto another worn out label. It was time to create my own design.

I wasn’t a bystander in the labeling game. I was team captain in magazine articles. I had often described my glass of wine at 5:00 PM as mommy’s little helper. That’s how I marketed wine to myself and it was also my way of fitting in with other wine moms. It sounded lighthearted, but it had the bitter edge of resentment. By that time of the day, I was exhausted. No one was helping mommy, so mommy helped herself to a drink. Even when nobody was asking me to plow through more email at the end of the day, I do it as long as I had my first glass of wine for the evening. I created my own reward to extend my productive day for another hour. How does she do it all? With wine. There’s no internal reward for cleaning out your inbox, which someone once characterized as an organized list of other people’s priorities, but my sense of thankless depletion was never soothed by a drink. It belled the roar but not the whimper.

Alexandra Stennett (25:39):
Here’s a review from Tommy Lowe, an early reader from West Lafayette, Indiana. I was flabbergasted when I got to read this book. The book takes you on a journey of love, anger, grit, rising, and triumph. You will cheer and scream sometimes in the same chapter. As I got more and more into it. I felt like I was reading a journal from my best friend. I belonged to a wine club and this book completely changed how I see wine reviews. I’ve never asked who wrote them and never thought that people might be paid to write them. I’ll look at the reviews with a more critical eye when deciding what to buy. I recently talked to the woman who worked in the wine industry for years. She talks about the challenges of being a woman in that field and was often the only woman in the room. I have newfound respect for her after reading this book. This book is worth the read. Four stars.

Natalie MacLean (26:31):
Why include stories of women behind the wine labels? Every book and every bottle has a story. That’s what makes them intriguing. There are so many women’s stories that haven’t been told in the wine industry. I tried to highlight some of them such as Emma Garner, Thirty Bench winemaker in Niagara. Cathy Corison, Corison Winery in Napa. Carmen Stevens, Carmen Stevens Wines from South Africa. José Rallo, Donnafugata in Italy. And others. Every woman faced significant challenges to get where she is today.

How did you choose which wines to feature? It was a mix of wines I was drinking at the time as well as wines with a story or a woman who inspired me. For example, the robust red blend Sul Volcano from the Sicilian winery Donnafugata, whose name means woman in flight or fugitive woman. Donna un fuga. Sul Volcano means on the volcano, so this woman was both on the run and on the hot sea. Perfect pairing for my life.

(27:37):
The name Donnafugata refers to the story of Maria Carolina, Queen of Sicily and Naples, during the French invasion of Naples. In 1798, she fled to the Sicilian countryside where the vineyards are planted today. Conniving men, plotting her overthrow, tried to hunt her down. She survived and returned triumphantly to her reign. In her honour, the winery has an illustrated woman’s head with windblown hair on every label. The vines for this robust wine grow in the volcanic soils of Mount Helena where they struggle but become stronger for it. Given the sporadic eruptions of fire and brimstone, those vines like people, don’t take survival for granted.

You’re a super taster. What does that mean? Dr. Linda Bartochuk at Yale University School of Medicine discovered the supertaster phenomenon in 1999. Women are more than twice as likely as men to be super tasters. Women have more fungiform papillae, those tiny structures on the tongue that hold taste buds. This doesn’t mean we’re better tasters, that comes with practice, but it does mean that we’re more sensitive tasters. Dr. Bartochuk dipped a thyroid medication on study participants’ tongues to test their sensitivity to bitterness. She divided the population into three groups, non-actors with limited pallets – 25% of the population – tasters with average pallets – 50% – and super tasters with very sensitive pallets –  25%.  Super tasters possess more than a hundred times more taste buds per square inch than do regular tasters. She compared this to having 500 fingers rather than 10, noting that super tasters live in a neon world of taste. Tim Haney, a sensory taste specialist and Master of Wine in California, measured the density in number of my taste buds for an article I was writing. Turns out I’m a super taster and that also means being extra sensitive to your environment.

(29:46):

Haney knew without my telling him that I cut tags out of my clothing. Prefer tea over coffee and have thermostat wars with my family. It is also why I probably didn’t start drinking alcohol until I discovered wine in my late twenties. Beer and whiskey were both too bitter.

If you could be a wine, which one would it be? If I could be a wine, it would definitely be Pinot Noir. It’s my favorite wine to drink because it’s bursting with flavour, but low in oak, alcohol, and tannin so you don’t fall asleep on the sofa at 7:00 PM. It also has this edgy, nervy acidity that makes it so vibrant almost like it’s on the edge of a nervous collapse. I like wine and people who are like that, they’re far more interesting than those who are more stable. Pinot Noir is highly susceptible to mold, mildew, and it seems voices above a whisper in the vineyard. It’s finicky and difficult to grow, making it expensive and high maintenance. When it’s good, it’s sublime. When it’s bad, it’s horrid. That’s also the thrill of it because you never know quite what you’re going to get. It’s a thin skin grape, and I also like that in wine and people. When the novelist Philip Roth was asked if he had developed a thicker skin after years of writing, he replied that it had actually gotten thinner and thinner until they can hold you up to the light and see right through. I don’t want to develop a thick skin in response to what happened. I want to stay thin-skinned, open, and vulnerable. That’s the only way that the love can come in.

Alexandra Stennett (31:19):
Here’s a review from Kathy Morgan, an early reader from Nashville, Tennessee. Definitely recommend. Shocking, maddening, frustrating, funny. You’ll feel all these things when you read this memoir. By the end, you’ll also be wanting to pour your favorite glass of Pinot Noir. Five stars.

Natalie MacLean (31:38):
What was your most interesting wine experience? I remember the September evening years ago when I visited Mary Edwards winery and vineyards in Sonoma. The sweet smell of grapes and alcohol hung heavy in the air of the barrel room. As I walked into the vineyard, the slanting amber rays slid over my shoulders. Wine drew me outside again connecting me with the earth. It got me out of my head and away from the computer I was chained to in my previous tech job. Some employees at the company there slept under their desks so they could work longer. We were mole people, I used to joke. We shrank from sunlight. When I returned to the tasting room, I drank the wine to make the sun and soil part of me, and then I wrote about it to metabolize my feelings and digested sensuality.

(32:34):

Which wines do you enjoy drinking on your own time these days? Well, I still love Pinot Noir though I’ve tried to widen my range. So here are four wines that have recently captured my attention and taste buds, and I’ll include links to them in the show notes. Adamo Parke vineyard Pinot Noir from Twenty Mile Bench in the Niagara escarpment of Ontario.   Adamo Estate Parke Vineyard Pinot Noir is a fresh and zesty red made from vines between 10 and 20 years of age, thriving in clay loam and limestone soils. It’s bright with fresh ripe cherry, dried strawberry, earthy violets and spicy flavours on the palate. Pour it with roast duck grilled pork chops, lamb chops, and veal cutlets. I gave it 91 points.

Malivoire Rosé from Beamsville Bench in Niagara, Ontario is a vegan friendly rose produced from sustainably grown 88% Pinot Noir and 12% Pinot Gris grapes. It’s fresh with vibrant cherry, rhubarb, crabapple, lavender and citrus zest flavours with a long citrusy finish produced by winemaker Shiraz Mottiar. And I’d pair it with soft herbal cheeses, strawberry and spinach salad with poppy seed dressing and fresh oysters, or a citrus poached shrimp. I gave it 91 points.

Zuccardi Q Cabernet Sauvignon from the Uco Valley of Mendoza in Argentina is produced from sustainably grown grapes. It’s dry, medium almost full-bodied, and generous on the pallet with black current, cassis, cocoa, dried sweet tobacco, licorice, cedar brush flavours. Grapes for this vintage were sourced from select vineyard sites between 900 and 1200 meters above sea level. I’d pair this wine with venison roast with garlic and wild mushroom, a boar steak with red wine sauce and wild leak. I gave it 93 points.

And finally LeBrun de Neuville Champagne from Champagne France. This is a great Champagne from a great vintage year and it’s produced mostly from Chardonnay with just a hint of Pinot Noir giving it an extra dimension. The wine is aged over eight years on its lees or spent yeast, it’s full-bodied with a fine persistent mousse of ripe apple, meyer lemon, and a minerally, steely notes that are intense and vibrant on the palate. I’d pair this with fish and chips, roast chicken, creamy cheeses and brunch dishes.

What does terroir mean to you? In the wine world, we talk about terroir. It’s a French word, meaning the magical combination of soil, geography, climate, weather, and wine making decisions to create a wine. Terroir is like a writer’s voice. It embodies word choice, point of view, humour, dialogue, and digging into your own dirt to create a memoir. Terroir is important and I found more meaning in writing about wine than in my work on a cooking oil brand. At Proctor and Gamble, homogeneity is the benchmark in producing most packaged food, but good wine is about wild diversity and taste that changes every year depending on the weather. And that’s why we put wine, not cooking oil, on the dinner table in its original packaging. It matters who made the wine, where it was made, and what happened that year.

What is your guilty pleasure when it comes to pairing wine in food? Rosé feels light and frivolous, and yet it’s packed with flavour. I love pairing it with ketchup chips. I thought it wouldn’t work since ketchup has more salt and sugar by volume than does ice cream. However, the chips were more savory than sweet, so they worked brilliantly with a dry rose.

Alexandra Stennett (36:29):
Here’s a review from Kim Hasty, an early reader from Smithfield, Virginia. I greatly enjoyed this book. It did bring up a lot of the same or similar feelings and emotions I experienced with my divorce, which I wasn’t expecting. Her points on sexism are so true. We as women are often taught or expected to brush over these comments to overlook them and accept them or to believe that we did something, said something, looked a certain way to cause their reactions. Rarely is it seen for what it is, a power thrust. Her book is very real. Five stars.

Natalie MacLean (37:05):
You have a new wine guide for book clubs, wine groups, and individual readers of your memoir. What’s in it and where can we get it? The free guide has questions that relate not only to the book, but also to broader issues about drinking, sexism, and marketing, and dealing with trauma. It also recommends wines to pair with this book and other books. You can use the guide in a group or just read it on your own. You can get the free guide at WineWitchOnFire.com/guide. I’ll also include that in the show notes. You’re offering readers a $397 bonus bundle with the book if they buy or pre-order it.

How can we find out more about that and where to buy the book? You’ll find all of that info, including the private online wine tastings. I’ll be hosting for those who buy the book at WineWitchOnFire.com.

(37:55):
Are there any book launch events coming up? I’ll be hosting a book launch at the Cordon Bleu in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 31st. I’ll also be hosting events in Toronto, Niagara, Calgary, and Halifax and other cities may be added in the future. Go to the show notes so you can find out what all those dates and cities are because they’re always getting updated. For those who may be going through difficult times themselves, what advice do you have? I had thought that strength and independence meant holding it all in and not needing anyone. That only made things worse. It was only when I opened up to friends, family, and a few other women in the industry that I felt the healing, restorative power of friendship. I thirsted for it like a dehydrated plant. Finally receiving the life giving water she needed. I realized that vulnerability is the only defence. Little Miss Perfect can’t control what others think of her, only what she tells them, so why not tell them plots without editing out the nasty bits. That’s how I connect with others, not through perfection, but through sharing my flawsome tendencies which they see in themselves.

What’s next for you? I love connecting with wine lovers through my online wine and food pairing courses at NatalieMacLean.com. They’re for both beginners and advanced wine fans. I also love interviewing the most fascinating people in the world of wine on my podcast right here and last week I teased you with two truths and a lie. Did you guess which one was the lie? Here they are again. I’ve been stung by a jellyfish. I was in a commercial for breakfast cereal when I was seven. And I’ve never had a cup of coffee. Well, the lie is that I was in a commercial for breakfast cereal when I was seven. So being in Nova Scotia, I got stung by jellyfish often. Being a super taster very sensitive to bitterness,  I have never had a cup of coffee. I like the smell of it, but I can’t drink it, so there you go.

(40:06):
Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed these stories. In the show notes, you’ll find a full transcript of this episode and where you can pre-order or buy my memoir online no matter where you live. That’s all in the show notes at NatalieMacLean.com/232. If you missed episode eight, go back and take a listen. I chat about Scandal’s wine women on TV and I’ll share a short clip with you now to whet your appetite.

(40:32):
Brooding, dark red wines do pair better with political intrigue than whites. Plus chilled white wine can mist over with condensation in the glass, which would be unsightly. Liv and the President’s chief of staff, Cyrus Beene, also enjoy a glass or two while discussing rigging elections and other matters. She once opened for him “a Bordeaux that will bring tears to your eyes”. Meanwhile, First Lady Mellie Grant tells Liv over lunch with beautiful menace I know how you love your wine. They’re arch rivals not least because her philandering husband, President Fitzgerald Grant III, is in love with Liv. But Liv’s most serious love affair is with red wine alone in her apartment.  Wine is mostly used to drink away the stress at the end of the day. It’s a coping mechanism.

(41:31):
If you like this episode, please email or tell a friend about it this week, especially someone who’d be interested in the wines tips, stories, and the book. Email me if you have a sip, tip, question or would like to be part of the books launch team at [email protected]. You won’t want to miss next week when I continue my chat with Chuck Cramer, host of the podcast, Mr. California Wine. Thank you for taking the time to join me here. I hope something great is in your glass this week. Perhaps a lovely pinot Noir because one is not enough. You don’t want to miss one juicy episode of this podcast, especially the secret full body bonus episodes that I don’t announce on social media, so subscribe for free now at NatalieMacLean.com/subscribe. Meet me here next week. Cheers.

 

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