My guest this week is Natalie Maclean
Natalie’s first book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass and her second book Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines were both selected as one of Amazon’s Best Books of the Year. She is the wine expert on CTV’s The Social, Canada’s largest daytime television show; CTV News; and Global Television’s Morning Show. www.nataliemaclean.com
She was named the World’s Best Drinks Writer at the World Food Media Awards, and has won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. She is the only person to have won both the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award from the James Beard Foundation and the M.F.K. Fisher Award for Excellence in Culinary Writing from Les Dames d’Escoffier International.
To fund her late-night vinous habits, Natalie MacLean holds down day jobs as an author, online wine course instructor and wine reviewer. An accredited sommelier, she is a member of the National Capital Sommelier Guild, the Wine Writers Circle and several French wine societies with complicated and impressive names.
Natalie studied the Romantic Poets at Oxford University with Jonathan Wordsworth. She graduated with honours from the Master’s of Business Administration at the University of Western Ontario.
Funny, brainy and unapologetically tipsy, her goal in life is to invite both the novices and the knowledgeable to the table to share a glass of wine (or three).
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Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
2018 Bodegas Mas Alta CIRERETS, Priorat D.O.Q.
“…It’s a village wine from La Vilella Alta produced with 60% old Cariñena planted in 1962 (La Veana) and 40% young Garnacha planted in 2002 (Cirerets). It is powerful yet elegant and harmonious with a soft texture, sleek tannins and very pure and penetrating flavors. Really delicious and hedonistic. This is certified organic and biodynamic since 2016. It was bottled in July 2020 and is already very harmonious and has the stuffing and balance for a good development in bottle.” ABV15.5%
95 Points, Wine Advocate
About this Spanish Winery
Based in the traditional village of Vilella Alta, Bodegas Mas Alta is the culmination of five Belgian partners’ common desire to produce a great wine. This dream is now taking shape thanks to the advice of Michel Tardieu and Philippe Cambie, and as the result of the work done by a passionate team every day.
Choice of vineyard is crucial for the production of highly expressive wines that combine character and elegance. We have planted some 35 hectares of vines since 1999 on land classified as being part of the DOQ Priorat, carefully selecting the plots in so doing. In fact most of our vineyard is planted at altitude, on slate. Depending on the plot’s characteristics, we either plant varieties traditional to this region – carignan and grenache – or varieties such as cabernet sauvignon or shiraz. These young vines, whose potential quality is already very promising, represent the future of Bodegas Mas Alta: We also purchase grapes from local winegrowers, often from the village, to make our wines. These winegrowers are the custodians of Priorat’s traditional heritage. In fact the essence of our vintages – old vines – comes from these winegrowers.
Vines aged 50 years and more naturally produce fewer grapes, the first step towards quality wine…Their deep, well-established roots thus enable them to achieve full maturity, consistency, less dependence on climatic conditions. It is without question the ultimate, pure expression of the terroir.