Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher bid adieu to their readers at the end of their Tastings wine column in today's Wall Street Journal. They did not give an explanation - one hopes it is a voluntary retirement and not a factor of budget cuts besetting the newspaper industry. But in a short farewell note they touched upon the extent of their influence.
"This is our 579th - and last - "Tastings" column," they wrote. "The past 12 years - a full case! - have been a joy, not because of the wine but because we had an opportunity to meet so many of you, both in person and virtually. Thank you."
When they started their column that dozen years ago, their effect on the market was immediate. Several Washington, D.C., retailers told me customers would come into their stores on Fridays (the column shifted to Saturday a couple years ago) with the Journal under their arms, asking for the recommended wines. Often the stores wouldn't have them, because Gaiter and Brecher typically purchased wines in New York City stores without regard to nationwide distribution. These retailers also told me over the years that the WSJ recommendations carried more weight with their customers than the picks from The Washington Post. (At that time I did not write the Post column.) Even with the economic downturn and the sale of the Journal to Rupert Murdoch, the Tastings column remained influential as one of two newspaper wine columns with national scope (The New York Times being the other). If their influence waned at all, I suspect the shift to Saturday publication was the culprit, especially among wine lovers who read the Journal at work. But the column has also been available free online recently, which wasn't always the case.
Gaiter and Brecher's most lasting legacy is likely to be "Open That Bottle Night," which they championed a decade ago and turned into an annual event that now takes place the last Saturday in February. Special wines are not to be kept in dusty closets, waiting for a perfect occasion that will never come, they argued. Rather, wines are to be enjoyed, so we should not hesitate to create the occasion.
They also were among the few wine writers of national scope that paid attention to the rise of local wines, urging readers to think beyond the West Coast and explore wines produced in their neighborhoods. They even gave a brief plug to the first Regional Wine Week and DrinkLocalWine.com, the Web site I co-created with Jeff Siegel, "The Wine Curmudgeon."
They carried that attitude into their final column, called "The Mysterious Heart of Deliciousness." The treacly title reflects their sometimes heavy sentimentality that could make eyes roll but probably contributed immensely to their appeal. They argue wisely that wine is not an absolute commodity to be objectified by point scores or star ratings (or even exclamation points, as they used), but to be enjoyed in the moment, with friends and loved ones, and remembered not for this nuance or that, but for the sheer pleasure of the wine and the occasion.
"Wine isn't a spectator sport," they wrote. "It's uttlery intimate. Don't let anyone tell you what you should like, including us. ... "Keep raising your personal bar for what is truly memorable, so that you are always looking for the next wine that will touch your soul and make you feel you've gone someplace you've never been before. It's not about delicious wines. It's about delicious experiences."
Excellent advice. Salut, Dorothy and John.
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