Unreserved Wine Talk
Natalie MacLean
The Unreserved Wine Talk podcast features candid conversations with the most fascinating people in the wine world. Your host, award-winning journalist Natalie MacLean, dives into how it feels to compete in the nerve-wracking World's Best Sommelier Competition, the shadowy underground of wine forgery, the zany tactics of a winemaker who hosted a funeral for cork, and more. Nestled in these colourful stories are practical tips on how to choose wine from a restaurant list, pair it with food and spot great values in the liquor store.
Every second episode, Natalie goes solo with an unfiltered, personal reflection on wine. She'll share with you how it feels to be a woman in what is still a largely male-dominated field, her gut reaction to the latest health study that says no amount of alcohol consumption is safe and her journey in writing her next book. She'll reveal these vulnerable, sometimes embarrassing, stories with tipsy wit and wisdom that she's soaked up from 20 years of writing about wine.
This podcast is for wine lovers from novices to well-cellared aficionados.
Every second episode, Natalie goes solo with an unfiltered, personal reflection on wine. She'll share with you how it feels to be a woman in what is still a largely male-dominated field, her gut reaction to the latest health study that says no amount of alcohol consumption is safe and her journey in writing her next book. She'll reveal these vulnerable, sometimes embarrassing, stories with tipsy wit and wisdom that she's soaked up from 20 years of writing about wine.
This podcast is for wine lovers from novices to well-cellared aficionados.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 23, 2019 • 18min
8: Scandalous Wine Women on TV
I have to confess: I am obsessed with Alicia Florrick, the successful attorney on The Good Wife, and Olivia Pope, the high-powered Washington D.C. “fixer” on Scandal. In this episode, I’m going to share with you my secret obsession with the wine drinking habits of these women on television and what I believe that says about our cultural relationship with wine. To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
Jan 16, 2019 • 40min
7: Wine Confidential: An Insider Look at the Wine World with Bianca Bosker
Bianca Bosker is an award-winning journalist and the author of the New York Times Best Seller, Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste, which has been hailed as the “Kitchen Confidential of wine.” Bianca has written about food, wine, architecture, and technology for The New Yorker online, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The New Republic, among other publications. In this episode, Bianca and I talk about her early days as a tech writer and how she stumbled into the wine world, the secret language high-end restaurants use to categorize their patrons, why you may actually learn something from licking rocks, and more! To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
Jan 9, 2019 • 31min
6: Secret Book Club Reading of Red, White and Drunk All Over
Are you curious about what’s behind the covers of my book, Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass Audio Edition (which you'll hear me refer to as "RWD")? In this episode, I’m inviting you to pull up your most comfortable imaginary chair for a secret book club reading of the juiciest bits of RWD, which was named one of the best books of the year by the Globe and Mail, New York Times and Amazon. To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
Jan 2, 2019 • 38min
5: Wine & Health: Benefits, Risks and Surprises with Dr. Edward Miller
Dr. Edward Miller is a board-certified physician, author, & researcher and he has been passionate about wine since taking a wine appreciation course 30 years ago during medical school. He is a regular attendee at The International Wine-Heart Health Summits and a member of The Renaud Society, an international society of medical professionals investigating the role of wine in health. Dr. Miller is an advanced-level certified wine sommelier from the International Wine & Spirits Guild and he and his wife are practising physicians in southeast Arizona. In this episode, we talk about what moderation really means in wine consumption, the amazing healthy compounds present in some wines, the relationship between wine, breast cancer, dementia, and diabetes, how moderate drinking can increase longevity by five to six years, and more! To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
Dec 26, 2018 • 14min
4: Sneak Peak Behind-the-Scenes: Publishing a Wine Audiobook
Have you ever wondered how an audiobook gets made and then sold via Apple Books, Amazon and Audible around the world? In this episode, I’m sharing my journey from idea to audiobook and we’ll go behind the scenes of creating the new audio edition of my book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass (RWD). I’ll also share with you some terrific sparkling wines that pair perfectly with ringing in the New Year. To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
Dec 19, 2018 • 54min
3: Why Do You Like the Wines You Do with Marnie Old and Jean-Charles Boisset
Sommelier and author Marnie Old and winemaker Jean-Charles Boisset of Domaine de la Vougeraie, have co-authored a book, Passion For Wine: The French Ideal and the American Dream, which has some truly innovative ways to help you understand why you like certain wines and not others. In this episode, Marnie and Jean-Charles share with us why it's so hard for people to identify their personal preferences in wine, how to use the "Spectrum of Style" as a wine pairing tool, the easy way to know if an expensive wine is worth the price, and more! To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
Dec 12, 2018 • 13min
2: Wine Confession: Loving the Buzz of Alcohol
As I mentioned in the introductory episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, every other episode I’ll be doing a solo episode where I offer up some of my personal wine confessions. This is the first of these special confessional episodes. Many of these stories I’ve never shared publicly. Some will be funny, others will be funny, and a few will be embarrassing. I’ve decided to share these confessions with you not because I’m a psychological exhibitionist, but because you might you might be able to relate, and I want you to know you’re not alone. Take a listen to my confessional episode as I talk about a taboo subject in the world of wine; loving the buzz of alcohol. To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
Dec 12, 2018 • 34min
1: Wine Forgery and True Wine Crime with Pete Hellman
Peter Hellman is a New York-based wine journalist and best-selling author. His writing has appeared in Wine Spectator, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, New York Times, New York Sun and his bestselling books include In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire and Chief!: Classic Cases from the Files of the Chief of Detectives and When Courage Was Stronger than Fear. Peter started writing about Rudy Kurniawan in 2008 and has covered the story ever since. In this episode, Pete shares with us why wine makes a good candidate for forgery and how he landed on the story of Rudy Kurniawan and several fantastic stories and experiences from over the years, and so much more! To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
Nov 20, 2018 • 9min
Introducing the Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast: Unfiltered Wine Conversations and Confessions
Welcome to this special introduction to the Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast! My name is Natalie MacLean and I’ve been writing about wine for twenty years. Growing up in a small Nova Scotia town, I used to think that wine was just for fancy people. However, I now know that the pure pleasure and passion of wine is for everyone. This podcast serves to help you take the journey I’ve taken with wine. One that will move you away from confusion, embarrassment, and disappointment to a place confidence, ease, joy, and pure pleasure. In this special episode, you’ll discover exactly how this podcast is going to guide you on that journey and you’ll also learn a little more about me and why I feel this is exactly what I was put on this planet to do. So, pour yourself a glass of your favorite wine and take a listen to this episode. To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
