{"id":4732,"date":"2011-11-19T01:44:50","date_gmt":"2011-11-19T01:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/?p=4732"},"modified":"2011-12-19T01:46:27","modified_gmt":"2011-12-19T01:46:27","slug":"canadian-wine-writer-pens-new-bestseller-wine-access-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/canadian-wine-writer-pens-new-bestseller-wine-access-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Wine Writer Pens New Bestseller – Wine Access Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Wondering what to get for your favourite wine lover this holiday season? Consider a copy of Canadian wine writer Natalie MacLean\u2019s new book.<\/p>\n

The book, Unquenchable<\/strong><\/a>: A Tipsy Quest for the World\u2019s Best Bargain Wines, chronicles MacLean\u2019s lively forays into wine regions and interviews with some of the world\u2019s top winemakers, both familiar (Australia\u2019s Wolf Blass) to less-known but equally influential (Italy\u2019s Andrea Franchetti); the book is already on bestseller lists across Canada.<\/p>\n

Her award-winning first book, “Red, White and Drunk All Over,” was also a bestseller. It was published in 2006 in seven countries and several languages.<\/p>\n

In addition to writing books, MacLean publishes Nat Decants<\/strong><\/a>, a popular wine website and e-newsletter, which has more than 127,000 subscribers.<\/p>\n

The mother of a 13-year-old boy, Rian, MacLean is also the wine columnist for Homemakers magazine and a contributor to Ottawa Magazine.<\/p>\n

Currently on a national book launch tour, MacLean will be in Calgary at Pages Books on Nov. 19, in Vancouver at the Fairmont Pacific Rim on Nov. 21, Niagara\u2019s Casablanca Winery Inn on Nov. 22, Toronto\u2019s Grano Restaurant on Nov. 23, and Halifax\u2019s Atlantica Hotel on Nov. 27. (For more tour dates and information, go to nataliemaclean.com<\/strong><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Here, MacLean shares with Wine Access eight fun facts about how she approaches writing, and a couple of the people she encountered along the way to her latest bestseller:<\/p>\n

On what her readers want:<\/p>\n

\u201cTravel! They say, \u2018Take me, as an armchair traveler, somewhere that I may or may not be able to travel to by myself,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

On her definition of a bargain wine:<\/p>\n

\u201cA bargain isn\u2019t just cheap. It\u2019s something that\u2019s priced lower than you think it should be. It\u2019s when something overdelivers, to use a clich\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n

On bestselling author Frances Mayes (“Under the Tuscan Sun”), who is quoted on the cover of MacLean\u2019s book:<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t met her, but she\u2019s a wonderful woman on email. She even sent me a bottle of olive oil,” says MacLean. \u201cI met her via someone I met on Twitter. A friend in California on Twitter, we were always exchanging wine tips and having fun; she mentioned she was going to visit with Frances Mayes, and I said, \u2018Oh, you know her?\u2019 She made the connection for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

On why MacLean decided to write a second book:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that connection to readers. It\u2019s impossible to resist. \u201cI get these notes from people, one woman who was at the base camp for Mount Everest, saw the poster for my book on the wall. Another guy was at sea in a submarine for three months; he read my book while he was there. Someone else decided to become a sommelier after reading my first book. That\u2019s why I couldn\u2019t resist writing another one.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what she set out to accomplish with the new book:<\/p>\n

\u201cWine\u2019s my excuse to be nosy. I looked for the most interesting people to talk to,\u201d she says. \u201cBut people want to be entertained before they want to be educated. I always keep that in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her secrets for finding time to be a mom, maintain her popular website and write books:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a really early riser. Incredibly early, 4:30 or 5 a.m. every day. I\u2019ve always been a morning person. Never had an alarm clock in my life. \u201cI\u2019ll work a couple of hours before Ryan gets up, and then again when I get back from driving him to school. I\u2019ll work till 12:30; then I\u2019ll have lunch and work out to clear my brain. Then I\u2019ll rev up again from 3:30 to 6 p.m., and that\u2019s it for the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

On interviewing the legendary Wolf Blass, one of the most entertaining profiles in a very entertaining book:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe makes for a great interview because of his colourful personality. But it\u2019s not just that. It\u2019s his passion. That really shines through,\u201d she says. \u201cHe really loves what he does and he\u2019s not going to stop, even though he\u2019s in his 70s. \u201cAnd he cares. He may be one of the best marketers I\u2019ve ever met, but he cares about the quality of his wine, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

On her own secrets for quality, good grammar and accuracy:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have this giant editorial board with the e-newsletter<\/strong><\/a> that I send out. I call them Wine Lovers for Better Grammar; they remind me of every missing comma or dangling participle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good Quotes from “Unquenchable<\/strong><\/a>: A Tipsy Quest for the World\u2019s Best Bargain Wines”<\/p>\n

\u2022\u201cSome critics pride themselves on their \u2018objectivity,\u2019 and don\u2019t use first-person narrative. Not me. I\u2019m neurotically personal, prone to tangential digressions and Bridget Jones-like overreactions. I fall in love too easily with people, places and wines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u201cThe most famous fan of rosados was Ernest Hemingway, who reportedly gulped down two bottles a day during those sultry afternoons spent watching the bullfights in Pamplona, Navarra\u2019s capital. He also filled wineskins to take with him when he went off to write in the mountains during the country\u2019s civil war. Who says pink can\u2019t be manly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u201cCanada needs cult wines that are famous outside of Canada. We think of Italy\u2019s Sassicaia, France\u2019s Chateau Margaux and Petrus, Australia\u2019s Penfolds Grange. They\u2019re the $10,000 haute couture dresses on the runway. Few of us can afford them, but we still try to buy a piece of their mystique with overpriced perfume, scarves and handbags. Le Clos Jordanne<\/strong><\/a> is positioned to do just that with pinot noir.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read more reviews of my new wine book<\/a> <\/strong>Unquenchable here.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wondering what to get for your favourite wine lover this holiday season? Consider a copy of Canadian wine writer Natalie MacLean\u2019s new book. The book, Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World\u2019s Best Bargain Wines, chronicles MacLean\u2019s lively forays into wine regions and interviews with some of the world\u2019s top winemakers, both familiar (Australia\u2019s Wolf Blass) to less-known but equally influential (Italy\u2019s Andrea Franchetti); the book is already on bestseller lists across Canada. Her award-winning first book, “Red, White and Drunk All Over,” was also a bestseller. It was published in 2006 in seven countries and several languages. In addition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-unquenchable","category-books-wine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4732"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5560,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4732\/revisions\/5560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}