Live Video Wine Tastings: From Sommeliers to Screwcaps

You won’t want to miss our live video chat with ! Join us Sunday, January 21 at 6 pm EST right here (click on this link below): www.nataliemaclean.com/live Click on the “Follow” and “Like” buttons on this Facebook page to get notified when we go live. Click on the arrow above to hear her story about obtaining the prestigious title of Master Sommelier. Watch previous episodes of the Sunday Sipper Club (SSC) and find out who’s coming up next. Upcoming Video Wine Tastings and Topics Elyse Lambert, MS January 21 […]

What is Wine’s Role in Modern Madness? Finding Our Humanity Drop by Drop

May 22, 2017March 14, 2020 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

Editor’s Note: I wrote this magazine piece on wine and civility two months after 9/11. You can also listen to this as a podcast here. In Vino Civilitatis The trouble with moderation is that it’s hard to get excited about it. Until now. After September 11, moderation seems to be rarer than a California cult cabernet. Finding the moderate and the civilized in everyday life has become all the rage. Few things embody these values more than wine, and the food we eat with it. A river of wine flows through most of human history — from the ancient clay […]

Mother’s Day Gifts, Wines and Pairings

May 4, 2017May 4, 2017 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

By Natalie MacLean How to thank Mom for all those kisses, compliments and band-aids? Try a great bottle of wine with Mother’s Day gift, brunch or dinner pairing. As a mother myself now, I call my glass of wine at 5 p.m. “Mommy’s little helper.” Here’s to you Mom! Here are my Top 20 Wines for Mother’s Day, either made by women or named for them. Often the latter were originally made by women. Try these wines that I recommended on the Conde Nast site Epicurious.com or more choices on Canada AM and in More Magazine: Veuve Clicquot Champagne France […]

Plonk Wine Videos Stumble Blindly into Brilliant Insight

In his book How to Love Wine, New York Times wine columnist Eric Asimov observes: “I’m sometimes dismayed that sommeliers confuse their professional training with what consumers need to know to enjoy wine. We don’t need to know whether you can identify wines blind. “Those are just parlor games for professionals. I think that professionals, like sommeliers, need to be able to communicate with the public in a language that they understand and that they find useful.” When I tasted wines blind with Eric at the paper’s headquarters several years ago, he lived those words. The blind tasting was to […]

Surprising Pairings for Villa Maria Wines from Antipasto to Steak

January 8, 2017January 11, 2017 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

Canada’s top wine writers and sommeliers gathered in the nation’s capital for a comprehensive tasting of Villa Maria wines from New Zealand. Terry Jeans Wine Writer, Ottawa Wine Guide What an elaborate tasting! We had the chance to have an amazing tasting with one of the viticulturists from Villa Maria– Ollie Powrie, who presented us with an insightful session of tasting over a dozen wines from one of the only New Zealand owned and family operated wineries. Founded and owned by the venerated Sir George Fistonich, a real icon of the wine industry, who has been part of […]

A Fuzzy Vine-acular: 3,000 Descriptors for Drunkenness Makes My Head Spin

January 1, 2017January 3, 2017 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

By Natalie MacLean Last night’s startling discovery: there are more adjectives for drunkenness than there are Inuit words for snow. And I’m not just talking about being intoxicated or inebriated, or even blotto, blasted or bombed. There are well over 3,000 descriptors—just looking at the list makes me feel tipsy. What’s more interesting is the difference between the words used for men and women, young and old, bodily and behavioural effects—and how expressions vary across cultures and languages to reveal both positive and negative views. I had lots of help researching this subject from friends who came up with a bandwagon […]

The Wrath of Grapes: How to Cure a Hangover

January 1, 2017January 1, 2017 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

Do your eyelids creak when they open? Has your tongue been scrubbed with sandpaper? Is the Little Drummer Boy playing on your cerebral cortex? At this time of year, we make merry in haste and then repent in waste, the next day. Thousands of years ago, man discovered alcohol; the next day he discovered the hangover. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about what causes hangovers but not what cures them. Their effects are as immutable as Newton’s law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Of course, the only way to avoid a hangover is not […]

Top 100 Wine Sites > New Rankings: Who Made the List?

December 4, 2016December 8, 2016 Natalie MacLean Leave a comment

My Twitter feed lit up last night with good wishes from various parts of the planet … I clicked through to the link in one tweet and discovered that this site had just been ranked #2 in the Top 100 Wine Sites in the world. On the list: Jancis Robinson, editor of the Oxford Companion to Wine; Dr. Jamie Goode, author of The Science of Wine; James Suckling, former editor of The Wine Spectator magazine; Steve Heimoff, former editor of The Wine Enthusiast magazine, Alice Feiring, columnist for the New York Times; and Tim Atkin, columnist for the UK’s Observer […]

Wine Club Besties Find Friendship in the Glass

October 16, 2016October 16, 2016 Lori Kilmartin Leave a comment

By Lori Kilmartin Sommelier & Blogger Do you love wine, but no one else in your household does? Do you love wine but can’t afford to buy the more expensive wines you’d like to try. Do you just love wine – and would like to drink and learn more about it? There’s a great solution to all of the above – join a wine group – or form your own! I’ve been fortunate to be a part of the Wine Beasties Group (play on “Bestie) for about 9 years now. This group of 8 members was formed over 20 years […]

Kim Crawford Wines: Blending Passion and Place

In the video above, Kim Crawford Winemaker Anthony Walkenhorst explains how blending works at the winery as we try our own hand at it. Canada’s top wine writers and sommeliers met in our nation’s capital recently for a fascinating tasting, and blending exercise, with Kim Crawford wines. Jennifer MacDonald Havers Wine Columnist, Ottawa Citizen Upon entering a beautiful dining room at Courtyard restaurant, our group knew our tasting with Kim Crawford wines was going to be a unique experience. A huge table set with multiple glasses, all but one at each setting containing a sample of […]