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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
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.
Forthright, wry, and heady, Wine Witch on Fire is a memoir about wine, life, and hard-won wisdom.
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.
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.
Misogyny, sexism, social media trolling. Natalie MacLean has been through hell and back. But her words are heartfelt and her journey inspiring.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This decade’s Eat Pray Love.
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.
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.
For anyone who has faced public scrutiny, personal upheaval, or simply wondered how to rebuild after a devastating season, MacLean offers a glass half-full perspective—tempered with honesty and just enough spice.
CONTENTS
• DECEMBER 2012 •
Begin at the Season’s End
Boil and Bubble 3
Toil and Trouble 10
• JANUARY–MARCH 2012 •
Back to the Season’s Roots
Tasting Sham-Pain 19
A Pox on Your Prose 31
The Crucible 45
Karma’s a Witch 53
• APRIL–JUNE 2012 •
Budbreak
Game of Crones 63
A Marriage of True Vines 68
Tempest in a Wine Glass 74
Good Witch Hunting 81
• JULY 2012 •
Pruning
Labelling Luna 89
Under His Eye 96
Glinda Gets Her Groove Back 100
Educating the Whole Witch 111
Calypso Credit 118
• AUGUST–NOVEMBER 2012 •
Harvest
The Lying, the Witch, and Her Wardrobe 127
Meeting a Magic Man 136
Hex and the City 145
Charmed 155
• DECEMBER 2012 •
Wildfires
The Scarlet Letter C: Copyright and Cabernet 163
Bewitched and Bewildered 173
Out of the Cauldron,
into the Crackpot 185
The Bare Witch Project 195
The Howling 203
Into the Legal Woods 211
A Discovery of Bitches 220
They’re Creepy and They’re Crawly 227
• JANUARY–DECEMBER 2013 •
A New Season’s Growth
Round About the Cauldron We Go 247
Trolls Just Wanna Have Fun 265
Behind the Curtain 271
The Social Spell 276
When the Hurly-Burly’s Done; When the Battle’s Lost and Won 283
Post-Morticia 288
Acknowledgements 291
About the Author 295