Like most people, I’m sure you think the life of a wine writer is exciting, yes? And romantic. And you are quite right — the life of a professional wine writer is something to be admired. And what are the qualities that make for a professional wine writer, you might ask? Of course, they are many, yet possibly the most important is the ability for the writer to describe a scene so vividly the "armchair reader" feels himself or herself to be part of the unfolding drama of the story. This defines Natalie MacLean precisely.
I first met Natalie MacLean at NYU, when she was speaking on a James Beard–sponsored panel about the Internet along with Julie Powell (of Julia and Julia fame). Impressed by her savvy, I later bought her book, Red, White, and Drunk All Over. Now, if you’re reading this review, you probably know that wine books run the gamut from (boring!) encyclopedias to wine-soaked romantic liaisons written by importers about the adventures of their youth. Then, of course, there are the food and wine pairing guides, the Wine 101 books, and all the rest.
MacLean’s book takes a happy departure as she shares with us, her readers, a day in the life of many different wine professionals. MacLean has a diploma from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust (WSET), a two-and-a-half-year wine education that involves many written and tasting exams. As one who has been through the process, I can assure you that a graduate is expected to know everything about every wine in the world. Literally.
So in her charming and well-written book, MacLean describes not only her love of wine and what brought her into the wine world, but also the lives of people in various wine-oriented professions, and in some instances she spends a day or night literally in their shoes. Yet what I like best about the book is MacLean’s very colorful, highly descriptive voice in which she captures the absolute essence of the people she is writing about. In Vose-Romanee (a prestigious village in Burgundy, France) she describes the person of Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy, the dynamic head of her family’s négociant business. MacLean takes the reader along with Madame Bize-Leroy through the winery, where we seem to see the sorting table and all the other winery equipment in our minds' eyes. And through this very visual tour, even people who have never seen a winery will get a sense of how wine is made (without that expensive, time-consuming WSET program!).
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