Natalie MacLean’s Post

On April 23rd, World Book Day, how will you to toast your love of reading with a great book and bottle pairing❓ 🔗 Link in Bio https://lnkd.in/gHy78aHi 🌊 Mary Soderstrom’s book, Against the Seas, which is about what we can learn about coping with rising sea levels from ancient times. ♻ I’d pair this wine with the Benziger Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma, California which is certified sustainable, meaning they try to reduce their impact on the environment by recycling various inputs such as water and energy. 🥰 Super Bloom, an exciting debut novel by Megan Tandy set in a luxury Vermont spa. The lead character, a massage therapist, is grieving the accidental death of her boyfriend. This book is both heart-warming and hilarious, a very uplifting spring read. 🌼 I’d pair this wine with Reif Riesling from Niagara with its spring-fresh notes of lemon, lime and blooming field flowers. 👩🍳 Well Seasoned: A Year’s Worth of Delicious Recipes by bestselling Toronto author Mary Berg, This cookbook is bursting with more than 100 seasonal recipes to inspire the home cook, from a lively green risotto to grilled summer squash pizza. 🍷 I’d pair this cookbook with the Caymus-Suisun Grand Durif made by the Caymus family of California. 📖 Wine Witch on Fire and the book’s subtitle is Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drink Too Much. Believe it or not, it has lots of humour and a happy ending. 📚 It’s about my own worst vintage both in terms of relationships and career, and I coped with these challenges. Indigo/Chapters just named it one of the “Most Anticipated Books of the Season.” 💔 I’d pair this wine with Quails’ Gate Pinot Noir, which is also known as the heartbreak grape. This wine has aromas of ripe cherry and fresh earth, but also of hope and optimism from its deep roots in the Okanagan Valley of BC. 🔥 It would pair well with my grilled chicken, my memoir or burning love letters as it has a lovely smoky element to it. What’s your favourite wine book❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers🥂, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! Zibby Books Dundurn Press The Rights Factory Sonoma County Vintners California Wines Europe Reif Estate Winery Ontario Craft Wineries Caymus Vineyards Quails' Gate Winery Wine Growers British Columbia #Natdecants #NatalieMaclean #winewitch #winewitchonfire #memoir #canadianauthor #worldbookday #winepassion #cheers #author #winecommunity #winelover #winegeek #winewinewine #wine #winetime #booklaunch #sommlife #winelovers #bookstagram

How are Organic, Biodynamic, Sustainable, Vegan and Vegetarian Wines Different❓ 🔗 Link in Bio https://lnkd.in/gZH-grJC What makes wine not vegan❓ 🌧 It’s all in the clarifying—the removal of the particles which create cloudiness. 🍷 Fining agents are added to the barrels of fermenting wine. As these settle through the liquid, they bond with particles and eventually float back to the top, where the vintner scoops them out. 🥚 Traditionally the most commonly used fining agents were casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein) and isinglass (fish bladder protein). These fining agents are known as processing aids. They are not additives to the wine. What makes it organic❓ 🍇 Grapes that are organically grown must have no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or fungicides used on them. An organic wine takes the no synthetic chemical use a step further. 🌿 It means that not only were the grapes grown organically, but the wine itself was then made in the winery with no synthetic additives and agents. 🌎 Biodynamic viticulture takes organic farming a step farther. It focuses on the link between the cosmos and the plant’s health and uses minute quantities of homeopathic-style preparations, such as chamomile tea, to encourage plants to heal themselves and thrive. 🌱 The definition of natural wine varies among winemakers and there’s no a legal classification, but essentially the vintner is trying to make wine with as little intervention as possible. ☁️ Many natural wines follow organic principles, but not all natural wine is not necessarily organic. It usually isn’t fined or filtered so it can have a cloudy appearance. ♻ Sustainable farming tries to minimize the use of synthetic chemicals and the winery’s impact on the environment. They also attempt to be more efficient in their use of all resources, including water and energy, and to use recycled and non-polluting materials wherever possible. Have you tried a biodynamic wine❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers🥂, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! Ontario Craft Wineries Dandurand PMA Canada Wines of Chile / Vinos de Chile Trialto Wine Group Ltd. New Zealand Wine Wine Growers British Columbia Corby Spirit and Wine Limited Sonoma County Vintners California Wines Europe #natdecants #earthday2024 #earthday #bcwine #bcwinechat #VQA #wine #vegan #sustainable #organic #biodynamic #naturalwine #winetime #wine101 #winewriter #wineblogger #winecommunity #wineenthusiast #winemoment #winelife #winelover #winepassion

🌿 How do you find the best organic wine❓ 🔗 Link in Bio https://lnkd.in/dVajQcB 🍷 Who makes organic wine? 🌱 The number of wineries making organic wines is increasing steadily, with the result that they’re available in a far greater range of styles than ever before. 🍇 Some of the producers implement some organic principles and not others, some grow organic grapes but don’t make organic wine and still others make both organic and non-organic wines. ❓ Why don’t more organic wineries promote the fact on their labels? 🤔 Many wineries are cautious about promoting their organic designation. They know that most consumers buy wine based on its taste and quality—the organic part is just a bonus. 📉 Organic wines also have an unfortunate history. In the past, they were perceived (often correctly) as being poorly made and prone to going bad quickly because they lacked preservatives. 🔮 What’s the future of organic wine? 📈 The category is growing at about 20 percent a year, albeit from a small base. Encouragingly, even when winemakers don’t aspire to be fully organic, more and more are still trying to reduce their dependency on chemicals. Have you tried an organic wine❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers🥂, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! Malivoire Wine Company #natdecants #EarthDay2024 #naturalwine #organicwine #biodynamicwine #veganwine #rawwine #petnat #winewinewine #wineadvocate #winetime #winerystories #winefluencer #winebloggers #sommelier #somm

🍔 Which are the 7 best wines to pair with takeout dishes and fast food❓ 🔗 Link in bio https://lnkd.in/g6n47meN 🍴 It’s easy to pair a gourmet meal with wine, but what about our favourite take-out dishes? 🍗 When you dig into deep-fried chicken or fish, you perceive the taste of fat as sweet, so you don’t need more sugar in your wine. A dry, crisp sparkling wine is a beautiful thing. You have a pair of Proseccos, Italian sparkling wine, named Romeo and Juliet. 🍕 For pepperoni or meat pizza, try a juicy, full-bodied red wine that can muscle in beside your slice, such as a Californian Cabernet or an Australian Shiraz. 🍋 The sparkling wine would work, but also try a zesty New Zealand sauvignon blanc. This lemon-lime fresh wine doesn’t have any buttery oak notes, and instead delivers pure refreshment as it cuts through the fat in this dish. 🍁 Canadian icewine, made from shriveled grapes that lose their moisture because they’re left on the vine well past the fall harvest, are picked in the chill of January, and offer lovely flavours of honey and apricot preserves. 🍯 Perfect for honey crullers too. The rule of thumb is that the wine should be sweeter than the dessert, otherwise it’ll taste bitter by comparison. Do you like to pair wine with pizza❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers🥂, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! ITA - Italian Trade Agency Corby Spirit and Wine Limited Sonoma County Vintners California Wines Europe New Zealand Wine Pernod Ricard Ontario Craft Wineries #natdecants #vqa #niagarawinecountry #niagarawine #drinklocal #ontariowine #winetasting #wine101 #vinotasting #wineclass #winecourse #winetip #winetips #wineanddine #wineandfood #foodandwine #winepairing

🔥 Wine Witch on Fire tops Amazon Bestseller lists! 🏆 #1 New Release 👑 #1 Bestsellers in Wine 🌟 #2 Most Gifted Book in Wine 🎊 #3 Most Gifted In Culinary Biographies & Memoirs Get your copy here: https://lnkd.in/gjtBj5Wk 🧙♀️ Wine Witch on Fire 🍷 Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much From the book cover: 📖 A powerful memoir about how one woman resurrects her life and career in the glamorous but sexist wine industry. 😱 Natalie MacLean, a bestselling wine writer, is shocked when her husband of twenty years, a high-powered CEO, demands a divorce. Then an online mob of rivals comes for her career. 💪 Wavering between despair and determination, she must fight for her son, rebuild her career, and salvage her self-worth using her superpowers: heart, humour, and an uncanny ability to pair wine and food. 🍇 Natalie questions her insider role in the slick marketing that encourages women to drink too much while she battles the wine world’s veiled misogyny. 🌟 Facing the worst vintage of her life, she reconnects with the vineyards that once brought her joy, the friends who sustain her, and her own belief in second chances. 💖 This true coming-of-middle-age story is about transforming your life and finding love along the way. 🙏 Thanks to the brilliant Lilia Alvarez Nevarez, Co-founder + Strategic Creative Director, A Land Beyond for creating these graphics! Cheers🥂, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! Dundurn Press The Rights Factory #nataliemaclean #winewitchonfire #winewitch #memoir #bookreview #fivestarbook #winebook #winememoir #canadianbookstagram #canadianauthor

🍷 What makes Vin Jaune from France's Jura region so special❓ 🔗 Link in bio https://lnkd.in/g7sTsp9x 🏔️ What can you discover about the diversity of wine coming out of Jura and the French Alps? ✈️ What are some insider tips for planning a journey to the French Alps? 🎙️ In today’s episode, you’ll hear the stories and tips that answer those questions in part two of our chat with Wink Lorch. 📚 One of you listening to this podcast can win a personally signed copy of the terrific book about the wines of Jura and the French Alps. ✉️ All you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and tell me you want to win a copy. 🎉 I'll choose one person randomly from those who contact me over the next two weeks. 🗼 Have you tried a wine from France's Jura region❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! Académie du Vin Library Hopscotch Sopexa #natdecants #winklorch #jurawines #frenchalps #VinJaune #wineexperience #winegeek #winelover #winemoments #winetime #wineenthusiast #wine #wines #winelovers #wineaddict #winelife #winenot #glassofwine #wineworld #winewinewine #winedivine

🍷 Did you know that April 17 is World Malbec Day❓ 🔗 Link in Bio https://lnkd.in/gQ4gQMe8 🍅 The Malbec grape produces wines that stylistically fall between Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with more plummy richness and roundness than Cabernet, but firmer tannins and structure than Merlot. 🍝 Pair Malbec with beef, turkey, spicy dishes, tomato sauces, meaty casseroles, hamburgers, sausages, steak and kidney pie, cheddar, Adobo de Cerdo (spicy pork chop), game, lamb, spaghetti and meat balls, veal cutlets, osso buco and bittersweet chocolate. 🥩 The traditional Argentine barbecue, called an asado, is perfect for Malbec. 📅 April 17 is Malbec World Day as it marks the day in 1853 when then Argentine president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento asked Michel Pouget, a French agricultural engineer, to bring over new vines from Europe to transform Argentina’s wine industry. Malbec was among the cuttings. 🥂 Will you drink wine to celebrate the World Malbec Day❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers🥂, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! #Natdecants #malbecworldday #malbec #cheers #wineoftheday #wine101 #foodandwine #wineandfoodpairing #somm #winetime #wineschool #winewinewine #winewriter #wineblogger #winestagram #wine #wineoclock #wineworld #winelover #wineeducation #winecommunity

What are 5 terrible wine and food pairings and how do you fix them❓ 🔗 Link in bio https://lnkd.in/gDxyE_am 🍷 We all know that a big red wine pairs well with a steak, but what about more difficult dishes like vegetables and sushi? 🤢 Asparagus and artichoke have cynarin, an organic acid, that stimulates our taste buds’ sugar receptors and fools us into thinking that everything we eat or drink afterwards is sweeter than it is, including water. This plays havoc with wine. 😝 So if you pair it with a big red, the wine is going to taste like liquified moldy marshmallows running through a rusted drainage pipe. 🥗 Instead, try a dry, vibrant white wine, like a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc from Emiliana, which I call salad in a glass. 😝 Sushi is too light for these robust reds. They’ll taste like you’re chewing on dandelion stems dipped in vinegar with a burning rubber tire finish. 🍣 Instead, try the sushi with a zesty white wine like this Austrian gruner veltliner from Lenz Moser. Both the texture and weight are a great match for sushi. 😹 If you pair desserts with a dry red or white, on the nose, you’ll detect a whiff of wet feline furballs followed on the palate by a rush of rusted nails, the kind that if you step on them, you need a tetanus shot. 🍰 The dessert is sweeter than the wine, making the wine taste bitter by comparison. 🥂 Try instead a dessert wine like this luscious Riesling Icewine from Quails’ Gate in BC. Have you tasted a bad wine and food pairing❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers, 🥂 Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! #Natdecants #wineandfood #foodandwine #wineandfoodpairing #wineschool #wine101 #winetime #sommelier #wine #winenot #winelover #wineeducation #winelover

Can you taste the difference that organic farming makes in wine❓ 🔗 Link in bio https://lnkd.in/g6uKUJef 🔮 In this video with former Southbrook Vineyards’ winemaker Ann Sperling, we chat about biodynamic and organic winemaking. (What’s with burying cow’s horns, witchcraft and astrology? 🍷 Southbrook Vineyards Triomphe Cabernet Merlot: A juicy, succulent red that’s vibrantly alive! Plush dark plum aromas with some toast. Richly layered; superbly crafted. 🍾 Southbrook Vineyards Connect Red: A smokey wine with enticing dark fruit aromas. Full-bodied with a terrific acidity balance for many meals. 🎨 Southbrook Vineyards Whimsy Cabernet Sauvignon: Ann Sperling, who has dubbed this wine The Winemaker’s Palette, has “painted” a lovely wine. 🌳 Southbrook Vineyards Triomphe Cabernet Franc: Rich, savoury and juicy with aromas of redcurrant and cranberry. This wine was aged in both French and American oak. 🌟 Southbrook Vineyards Connect White Vidal: I love it when I find a wine that’s so low in alcohol yet so packed with flavour. Have you tried an organic wine❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers🥂, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! Ontario Craft Wineries #natdecants #niagarawine #winereview #winereviews #wineblogger #winewriter #winescore #winescores #winetasting #wine101 #winetasting101 #vinotasting #wineclass #winecourse #winetip #winetips #oenology #wineevent #sommelier #sommlife #somm

🍷 Which are the best wines for Malbec Day❓ 🔗 Link in bio https://lnkd.in/g-nCR9AF 🌍 World Malbec Day on April 17 reminds me of both a recent Argentine tasting with the Opimian Wine Club as well as a trip I took to Buenos Aires several years ago. 🍽️ We gathered at a local restaurant, El Gusto Mazzola, where the husband-and-wife owners, Elena Mazzola and chef Victor Mazzola treated us to an authentic Argentine tapas dinner paired with the Malbec and other wines. 📚 I spent a few days there before heading out to wine country, and was surprised at its beauty and cosmopolitan feel as I walked the streets carrying the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges, who was born here in 1899. 💃🕺 The label on the Norton winery’s Lo Tengo wine features a couple doing the tango. The label is actually a hologram that makes the dancers dip up and down as you change your viewing angle. 🍇 Do you celebrate Malbec Day❓ Let me know in the comments 👇 Cheers🥂, Natalie 🍷 PS Get my free "Ultimate Guide to Wine & Food Pairing" at: https://lnkd.in/ghiPfx_F 🔗 Link is also in the bio ✉️ Or just DM me and ask for the guide! Opimian Wine Club de Vin Wines of Argentina #natdecants #MalbecWorldDay #winegeek #winelover #winelife #winenot #winereview #winereviews #wineblogger #winewriter #winescore #winescores #winetasting #wine101 #winetasting101 #vinotasting #wineclass #winecourse #winetip #winetips #oenology #wineevent #sommelier #sommlife #somm