Wine Witch on Fire - by Natalie MacLean (Paperback)

About the Book

A world-famous wine writer's quest to clear her name after an onslaught of sexist online attacks and find love after the sudden crumbling of her twenty-year marriage. Natalie MacLean's experience reveals truths about online mobbing and the male dominance at the heart of the wine industry. This an inspiring story of resilience and hope.

Book Synopsis

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A powerful memoir about one woman who 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.

"This decade's Eat Pray Love ... Natalie MacLean survived an online mob, divorce and drinking too much. Her new memoir will help you get through your own mess, too." - The Coast Magazine

"The book is funny, edgy, and a page turner. Zesty, vibrant, meditative, structured, intense ... anyone at a crux will be buoyed by this writer's grit and grace." - Frances Mayes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun

"This deeply personal memoir tells the inspiring story of a talented woman navigating the treacherous currents of the wine industry, finding her voice and regaining her power through a true connection to time and place, human terroir." ? Chef Michael Smith, bestselling author of ten cookbooks and Food Network host

"Forthright, wry, and heady, Wine Witch on Fire is a memoir about wine, life, and hard-won wisdom." ? Foreword Reviews

"Filled with grit, vulnerability, healing and hope." ? Victoria James, bestselling author of Wine Girl

Review Quotes

Wine Witch on Fire is the triumphant story of how MacLean pushed back against sexism in the wine industry, found love, and drew on her female "witching" powers to turn obstacles into opportunities.

Natalie MacLean is living a life that is the definition of resilience. In her empowering new memoir, she takes us on her incredible journey filled with love, anguish, and fearless determination. Natalie's story is an inspiration and guide to living well and fearlessly. A fabulous read!

Forthright, wry, and heady, Wine Witch on Fire is a memoir about wine, life, and hard-won wisdom.

In Wine Witch on Fire, Natalie MacLean takes us inside the compromised competitiveness of the wine industry, and the wildly unfair challenges faced by women who choose nobly to enter the profession only to be repelled by its male power base. She opens her heart with authenticity to the pain of love lost, the joy of discovering new love, and the endless questions of balancing parenting with being a working professional. Her love of language is a joyous counterpart to her love of viticulture.

In her new memoir, Wine Witch on Fire, Natalie MacLean holds herself and the rest of the wine industry accountable. She talks 'wine mom' culture, sexist marketing and how to cut back without going sober. It is a more personal, vulnerable story than her previous works.

MacLean is an accomplished wine writer, but this deeply personal book takes us behind the scenes, revealing one woman's journey and extraordinary determination to become herself.

Misogyny, sexism, social media trolling. Natalie MacLean has been through hell and back. But her words are heartfelt and her journey inspiring.

Natalie Maclean has written a harrowing, heartfelt, and often hilarious account of the backlash she endured breaching the largely male-dominated world of wine writing. This highly personal odyssey is an eyes-wide-open take on betrayal, the insidious lure of addiction, and the sheer mettle required to rise above those seeking to cast a poisonous spell.

Natalie MacLean has written a book that will resonate with women from many different generations and fields. Filled with grit and vulnerability, MacLean examines the hardest parts of being a woman in a man's world with honesty and poise. A read filled with healing and hope.

Natalie MacLean offers readers a look into the magical world of wine, addressing head-on its problematic treatment of women throughout the industry.

Rousing, funny, and insider-y, Natalie MacLean's soul-baring memoir paints an evocative and compelling picture of what it's like to be a woman in wine.

There is an honesty on the page here that is not easy to achieve. Reading it is like having a glass, or three, with a very good friend.

This decade's Eat Pray Love.

This deeply personal memoir tells the inspiring story of a talented woman navigating the treacherous currents of the wine industry, finding her voice and regaining her power through a true connection to time and place, human terroir.

Told with equal parts poignancy and humour, Wine Witch on Fire is a spirited tale of determination lived on the terroir of Natalie's amazing and inspiring journey.

Vulnerable, honest, personal...with a touch of humor (and best paired with your favorite glass of wine). Natalie's beautifully written memoir shares an empowering story of her journey that reminds us just how powerful we are as women, and how we can always dig deep to find a little determination and faith, even with those things seem nowhere to be found.

Wine wizard wordsmith, enchanting interviewer, battle-tested survivor, fierce mother, witty, wise - Natalie MacLean is the whole package. Sip a great wine while you savour her memoir.

With a voice full of humour and keen honesty, wine writer Natalie MacLean pairs the personal with the political in her new book, Wine Witch on Fire. In the process, she exposes the sexism of an industry while coming to understand her own hard-won strengths. A delightful read with or without a glass of wine.

Zesty, vibrant, meditative, edgy, structured, intense - these words Natalie MacLean might use to describe wines all apply to her Wine Witch on Fire. With clear-eyed honesty and needle-sharp probing, her memoir covers a time of personal and professional crisis, much of which rose from the astonishing sexism of other wine writers.

About the Author

Natalie MacLean, named the World's Best Drinks Writer, has also won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. She's the bestselling author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over and hosts the New York Times recommended podcast Unreserved Wine Talk. Natalie lives in Ottawa.