Wine Witch: A Conversation with Natalie MacLean

Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much

a memoir by Natalie MacLean

Dundurn Press, 2023; 320 pp; $19.99

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Natalie MacLean is an accredited sommelier who has won multiple awards for her wine writing, including four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. In addition to her writing, MacLean hosts a podcast, regularly appears on TV, and connects with wine lovers through her online wine and food pairing courses at nataliemaclean.com.

Maclean has published three books: Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass (Bloomsbury 2006); Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines (Pedigree Books 2011); and most recently, Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much (Dundurn Press 2023). Wine Witch on Fire is a memoir about the year MacLean’s husband of twenty years demanded a divorce. Just as her marriage was ending, online rivals came after her career. In the book’s introduction, MacLean states, “I hope that my journey helps others who travel this way to feel less alone.” Since the publication of this book, she has received many emails from readers sharing the need to heal.

Rhonda Havig had a conversation with MacLean via email to discuss her latest book. This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Rhonda Havig: One thing that impressed me about Wine Witch on Fire was how well you wrote about unpleasant and stressful situations with humor and grace. How were you able to do this?

Natalie MacLean: Humor has always been my way of dealing with tough times. Perhaps that comes from my Celtic roots. We find levity even in darker moments, like the comment at one funeral about the deceased still showing up late. It’s a way of celebrating life by giving those you love a last fond ribbing.

I didn’t want to trivialize the serious subjects, but it couldn’t be one long, bleak narrative. We need comic relief in both memoir and life. Something has to brighten a book when the subtitle is brought to you by the dismal letter D: divorce, defamation, and drinking too much. The publisher’s marketing team insisted that we take out depression, destitution, and delirium. (Kidding.)

They say that comedy is pain plus time. I certainly couldn’t have injected humor into this book ten years ago when I was in the middle of the situation. But now, I can stand back with the wisdom of time and see how some of the more absurd things that happened border on the comical.

For the reader, though, this may sometimes feel bizarre. That’s because they’re reading it—and experiencing it—for the first time as if it’s happening now. I suggest reading the book at least twice, with wine, to allow the humor to marinate.

RH: From what you shared in the book about your son, it sounds like you were able to maintain a good relationship with him during an extremely stressful time in your lives. What do you think was key in maintaining that relationship?

NM: My son was fourteen at the time, grieving the break-up of our family and dealing with raging hormones. I wasn’t willing to share the adult issues with him until he was an adult himself. He deserved to enjoy fourteen-year-old thoughts.

The key was maintaining open communication about his feelings and mine as we struggled together. I recall many times when I gave him a hug. He’d wrap his spindly arms around my shoulders and squeeze me like when he was a toddler. I wished I could fix this pain for him with one of the Bob-the-Builder bandages he loved when he was two.

RH: I loved the witch theme woven into the entire book. You noted your admiration of witches’ internal strength and how they “embody the unity of women, the power of the feminine, and the healing connection to nature.” Which witch from literature do you admire or identify with most and why?

NM: My favorite childhood stories were always about witches, both good and bad, especially The Wizard of Oz and the battling duo of Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West. I was entranced by these opposing forces that I later realized were inside me.

My favorite was the straight-up badass White Witch of Narnia. Her wickedness was such a satisfying outlet for a tiny Miss Goodie Two-Shoes. I cackled inside along with her. Now, of course, I realize how damaging stereotypes of women can be, and I think it’s time to reclaim the word “witch” and what it means: a wise woman who’s been through the fire and has come out on the other side stronger, wiser, [and] fiercer.

RH: Prior to reading Wine Witch on Fire, I was not familiar with the wine world, which seems like it can be complex and political. I also hadn’t realized how it treated women, not only in the industry itself, but in the marketing of wines. 

NM: Victoria James, author of Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of a Young Sommelier (Ecco 2021), believes people started listening to women’s stories in the hospitality industry with the revelation of celebrity-chef sexual assaults. When I interviewed her on my podcast, Unreserved Wine Talk, she observed, “Since those scandals, I don’t believe that any real structural change has occurred. Women are still afraid to speak out.” She believes that the wine world was—and still is—an old boys’ club.

I hope Wine Witch on Fire will spark a conversation in the wine industry and beyond. We created a companion guide with book-club/wine-group discussion questions to get people talking about larger societal issues, such as how they feel about their relationship to alcohol post-pandemic, the bittersweet taste of wine-mom culture, and what role social media plays in their lives.

RH: Please share with us some of the ways you’ve worked to counter the misogynist culture.

NM: I had to rethink how I supported women in the industry. While I hadn’t knowingly undermined other women, I hadn’t made a concerted effort to help them. That had to change.

I started giving several of my regular columns in the Windsor Star newspaper and The Huffington Post to women trying to get published for the first time, and I transitioned several of my regular segments on television shows to other women. When wine councils invited me on all-expenses-paid media trips to regions around the world, I asked that another woman go in my place, who would then write about it on my site. I also encouraged bloggers of all genders to post wine reviews on my website to help raise their profiles. When I hired employees and contractors, I gave priority to women and people of color who had the same potential as other applicants.

RH: At one point in the book, you note, “I understood myself better through writing. Even now, when I write, I make sense of the world on the page.” Please share with us some of the things you learned about yourself as a writer, a wine professional, and a mother while writing Wine Witch on Fire.

NM: I had thought that strength and independence meant holding it all in, not needing anyone. That made things worse. It was only when I opened up to friends, family, and a few other women in the industry that I felt the healing, restorative power of friendship. I thirsted for it [like] a dehydrated plant finally receiving the life-giving water she needed.

I realized that vulnerability is the only defense. Little Miss Perfect can’t control what others think of her, only what she tells them. So why not tell them lots, without editing out the nasty bits? That’s how I connect with others—not through perfection but through sharing my ‘flawsome tendencies,’ which they see in themselves.

As painful as that year was, I realize I wouldn’t want to turn back time. I am who I am because of it. Extreme failure made me face something I never want to return to, but it also gave me a taste of a full life I never want to lose. When the angry online mob shoved me up against a wall, I had to ask myself, Am I really this person? Am I who they say I am?

Yes, no, and something more.