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
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