Margaret Swaine: a restaurant critic, a spirit columnist, and a spa correspondent

An Honours Journalism graduate of Carleton University, Margaret Swaine has written more than 16 years for the National Post, starting with features and then the weekly Wine & Spirits Picks column and later the weekly culinary travel column “Forks & the Road”. Her bi-weekly column under the banner “Global Gourmet” in www.travelindustrytoday.com won first prize in the 2018 Travel Media Association of Canada awards for best travel column/blog. She is a principal critic and partner with Wine Align, covering spirits.

Furthermore, she wrote the spirit and cocktail columns for Zoomer magazine and for six years was the spa columnist for Best Health (Paradise Home & Away). Margaret also spent over two decades as the wine and drink columnist for both Toronto Life and Chatelaine magazines.

In fact, Margaret Swaine has visited over 130 countries researching and writing about wine, spirits, food, restaurants and travel. Her debut in the wine field was as a winner of blind tasting competitions. In 1978, when Margaret entered her first Toronto competition, she captured both the first prize and the “women’s prize”.

She has also contributed feature articles to USA Today, LA Times, ScoreGolf, Foodservice Hospitality, Travelweek Bulletin, Expressions, Arrival, Nuvo, Wine Access, Elle Canada, Hello! Canada, Fairways, ClubLink NewsLink, WestJet Up! magazine, Toronto Star newspaper, Globe & Mail newspaper, Baltic Air magazine, EnRoute magazine, Ski Press magazine, Chic magazine, national newspaper groups such as CanWest and many other publications.

Margaret founded and was the first president of the Wine Writers Circle of Canada and is a member of the Wine Writers Circle in England. She is a founder, director and first treasurer of The Travel Media Association of Canada. She is the recipient of the 2003 Life Achievement Award of the Ontario Imported Wine-Spirit-Beer Association. Among the titles she’s been honoured with are Dame de la Jurade de Saint Emilion, Dame de Floc de Gascogne and Commandeur d’Honneur de Commanderie du Bontemps de Médoc et des Graves.

Samples of her articles can be viewed on her website.