I traveled to Toronto and attended a reading at the University of Toronto. The author was none other than Natalie Maclean ... She’s only the NUMBER ONE WORLD’S BEST DRINK WRITER!

I was in Toronto to meet with a sommelier to discuss a future event, but that night, as a treat I was also able to attend a reading at the University of Toronto. Bonus! The author was none other than Natalie Maclean; my hero!  She’s only the NUMBER ONE WORLD’S BEST DRINK WRITER! No, not just wine, but all drinks.  And the reason for her acclaim is that she’s hilarious, yet totally grounded. She’s from Nova Scotia, and as she says, “from a long line of heavy drinkers”.  Her family - she says - doesn’t quite understand this whole thing she has about writing about drinking.

I brought my daughter Bonnie (who incidentally hates wine) and we got there good and early. I wanted to sit in the front row, but Bonnie said that’s for nerds, so I settled for second row.  I bought a copy of her new book  “Red, White and Drunk All Over”. Natalie arrived in good time to begin the evening. She definitely started on a good note, with all about 120 of us having a glass of wine.  I chose the red. Big mistake because it was awful wine!  But Bonnie chose the white, which I was grateful for because I got to drink hers.

One outstanding takeaway from the whole experience was that the way Natalie conducted her wine tasting was very much like what I’ve been doing. The main new point that I learned from her is that one way to improve your ability as a wine taster is that when you’re working in the kitchen cutting up vegetables and fruits, take note of the smells.  This will help you to build on your ability to pick up the different smells in the wine.  Because that’s what tasting wine is mainly about, the aromas.  Don’t forget, anyone can learn to become a wine taster.  It just takes practice, a lot of it.  She also told us an experience involving a tasting where unfortunately, a gentleman with a nice blazer, got between her and the spit bucket.  So, not good for the back of the jacket, or the front of her chin and blouse.  But she said she was very grateful for the kindness of the server who handed her a paper towel to mop up her chin. That’s the kind of story she’s willing to share.  How many of us would do that? 

Her question and answer period was very interesting. My question was about places to visit for a good wine time.  Maybe France, Italy, Spain?  No, she said, how about closer to home.  Niagara region, upper New York, or Oregon. And one thing that totally blew me away was her reference to 2 places where we’re getting our fresh juices from, Sonoma California and Yakima Washington which she describes as undiscovered gems. 

I could go on, but you’d do better to subscribe to her newsletter, which as she proudly pointed out last night, “it’s free!” http://www.nataliemaclean.com.  You won’t regret it.  Tell her I sent you.  It won’t make any difference but it makes me feel good to say it.  And if you want some good reading about the wine world, buy her book.

As a new development to this story, at the tasting I gave Natalie a bottle of my award winning Meglioli Rojo Intenso.  I wasn’t going to ask her if she liked it, what if she didn’t?  But she sent me an email a few days later, said she “loved the wine”.  What a perfect ending to a great learning experience.