Love by the Glass, Dorothy Gaiter & John Brecher  (Villard, 2002)***

 

My oldest daughter, Karen, sent Rosemarie and me a delightful book this past Valentine’s Day.  It was a non-fiction book that could be described as part autobiography, part wine review, written by a husband and wife.  It is also two love stories, one about their own marriage and the other about their mutual love for wine.  They currently write a weekly column on wine for the Wall Street Journal.

 

Both long-time journalists, they each began their journalism careers in Florida and first met in the newsroom of the Miami Herald.  They realized immediately that they had found their soul-mate for life.  Their romance was particularly interesting, initially,  because he’s from a fairly traditional Jewish family and she’s black.  In addition to their love for each other, they both shared a passion for wine, even though they were relative novices at the time they met because their families were not regular wine drinkers.  Dorothy and John, however, began to make wine a part of their daily life and took careful notes on all of their tastings, starting sometime around 1974, one of the best vintage years on record.

 

As you read about the twists and turns in their careers and marriage, you are also introduced to a variety of wines and wineries.  Because they lived in major cities on the east coast, Miami and later New York City, they were exposed to a variety of European wines, especially the French and German.  They soon realized, however, that California wines were often as good or better and were invariably cheaper (in those days).  They began to take wine vacations to parts of Europe and several trips by train (their favorite conveyance) to northern California.  Their expertise in wine and contacts with journalists eventually led to their weekly wine column with the Wall Street Journal,  especially popular because these two clearly know and very much enjoy wine, and yet they avoid the pretentious style so common to most such reviewers.  

 

Coincidentally, 1974 is about the same time that Rosemarie and I completed a course on Wines of California at Grossmont College and began to keep a wine log of our own.  We were amazed, as we read their description of California wines, at how many of these wines we had enjoyed ourselves.  Karen knew this, of course, when she sent us their book, but we’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys wine with their meals and feels that ‘a day without wine is a day without sunshine’.