By now, it should be conventional wisdom that the same wine will land differently depending on the circumstances in which you drink it. Having it with colleagues at an office dinner party will not be the same as having it with your loved one or BFF. And that doesn’t even consider that no two bottles are the same anyway.
In our more than a half century together (53 years together this June), we’ve shared many thousands of wines. In the early ’70s, we started keeping notes and labels, habits that helped immeasurably after we became wine writers in 1998. While we have many categories of wine in our notes, we don’t have one for “romantic wines,” although many over the years have certainly fit the bill. Now that stores have prominently displayed those good, old-fashioned heart-shaped boxes of chocolates for Valentine’s Day, we’ve been thinking about those bottles.
Some are romantic because either the winery or the grape type is foundational for us. These include the 1968 Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, which we had on our honeymoon, sitting in a nearby vineyard as the sun set. Years later, André Tchelistcheff signed the label we had saved and talked about making that wine. And also Heitz Cellars, which had such a welcoming tasting room and stunning wines, including its iconic Martha’s Vineyard, which was like the holy grail to us. We recently swooned over the 2010. Zinfandel stole our hearts when we began our wine journey so we’ve cheered Ravenswood’s renaissance and its creator, Joel Peterson’s current project, Once & Future Wine.
Some were enjoyed on date nights. After 52 years together, it’s still romantic to go out to dinner together, whether it’s at the neighborhood dive bar or the recently rediscovered French-influenced place in our old neighborhood. At Melba’s in Harlem, in a dark booth, we had The House of Brown’s Red Blend ($18), the second label of Brown Family Estate, which makes, among other wines, a Zinfandel that first turned our heads a couple decades ago.
We’ve never had a bottle of Port that we didn’t enjoy. The real thing is made in Portugal from several grapes, like Touriga Nacional. During fermentation, the addition of brandy stops the fermentation, leaving the wine sweet and high in alcohol, perfect for lingering especially on a cold night. During an epic snow storm in the early ’80s, we shared a bottle of 1963 Martinez Port, watching the dusting from the first home we owned, an apartment on 72nd Street. We described it as “earth, chocolate, fruit and herbs in a relaxed, into-your-pores package.” We left New York City to return to Miami before the next winter, so the memory of that Port is particularly sweet and dear. We haven’t had a Martinez in many years but those from Symington Family Estates (Graham’s, Warre’s, Dow’s and Cockburn, which we had at the Painted Bird in Coral Gables after our return to Florida) are widely distributed, as is Taylor Fladgate Tawny Port.
For the first real snow of 2025, we sat by the window of the Manhattan apartment that’s been home for decades and opened a bottle sent as a holiday gift by a wine rep, Vin Santo — San Felice Belcaro 2015 Chianti Classico, around $55. This dessert wine, from dried grapes (primarily Trebbiano and Malvasia) was delicious and took us back to our first trip to Italy, where we met Giorgio Rocca, the owner of the small inn, Giardino da Felicin, in Monforte d’Alba. After a busy day of dropping in on winemakers in Piedmont, we returned to da Felicin and told Giorgio that we were going to have a picnic on our balcony with some cheese, prosciutto, olives and a loaf of bread we had just bought. As we recount in our memoir, Love By the Glass, Tasting Notes From a Marriage, he told us to wait there. A few minutes later, he returned with a plate of cold green beans, a sliced tomato, and a bottle of wine. It was Dolcetto d’Alba, bottled just for the inn. “Drink this,” he told us as we took the bottle, “and make love if you can.” We had many wonderful meals in our two weeks in Italy but that humble one was the best. And we did take Giogio’s advice.
The San Felice Campogiovanni Brunello di Montalcino 2020 ($75) also sent by a winery rep, took us right back to the first Campogiovanni we had, a 1978 that we purchased and drank in 1986. It was “Delicious,” we wrote in our notes about this Sangiovese. “Incredible nose of pure chocolate. Gorgeous red-gold color. Old on front of mouth. Dry. Rich. Huge. Austere. Drying, long finish.” The 2020 lived up to that and also revived memories of that first foray into Italy and our subsequent stay at the magisterial Villa le Barone in Panzano in Chianti. The bubblies from Italy also have found their way into our hearts. Wines like Enrico Serafino 2020 Oudeis Brut Rosé de Saignée Alta Langa ($38), made in Piedmont the way Champagne is made, is romantic and elegant. The N.V. Cleto Chiarli Lambrusco di Sorbara “Vecchia Modena” ($16), a sparkling, vibrant, red with pitch-perfect acidity, is always joyful and goes with a wide variety of dishes.
Our origin story truly began to take wings in a U-Pick strawberry field in South Dade County, when we were 21 and “cub reporters,” as they used to say, at The Miami Herald. Dottie, John learned, has a thing for vegetables and fruits, what her mother taught her were “Nature’s candies,” especially strawberries. The Ingrid Groiss “Ried Hasenhaide,” a blend of Pinot Noir and Zweigelt from Austria, put us back in that field of strawberries. “It’s like the essence of strawberries,” Dottie said. “Like I can taste the smell.” It was mouth-watering and delicious with perfect acidity and just $22. We were so taken with the 2024 that the importer sent that we found the 2023 online and bought more, for $19.97. The 2024 is just beginning to show up in a few places.
Taking a leap together with new things is thrilling and the Eden Specialty Ciders from Newport, Vt., certainly met that test with its high-end alcoholic ciders, especially the Heirloom Blend ($32) and its remarkable ice-ciders. A 2023 estate-grown Grüner Veltliner from HAT Ranch Winery in the Snake River Valley of Idaho ($19.99), sent by the Idaho Wine Commission, knocked our socks off and had us recalling our long-distance trips in Amtrak’s deluxe sleeper cars. “Best Grüner we’ve had in a while,” we wrote.
Returning to the old neighborhood several weeks ago to dine at The Ribbon, we looked out at the apartment building where we had the Martinez Port decades ago with some longing. We loved that little balcony but the building would not have been conducive to the family of four that we became, we concluded. While pondering that and whether Chris was still the superintendent—surely not—we had a bottle of Hers Las Brisas Vineyard Carneros Vermentino from Ryme Cellars in Forestville in Sonoma. This was not only a nostalgic moment, but it was lovely to relish the work of another couple who work together, Ryan and Megan Glaab, who we first learned about from our friend Elaine Chukan Brown’s outstanding new book The Wines of California. Brown wrote: “The His and Hers Vermentinos, two different wines each made in the style preferred by either Ryan or Megan, is the only example, they tell us, of them disagreeing in wine. The His includes skin contact and a little more aging. The Hers is straight to press and sells a lot more wine.” The Hers is $29 at the winery.
Over the years, many people have asked our opinion about the positive or negative health effects of wine. Our response has always been that we’re not doctors and we don’t know, but that, personally, after a day of work, we find that having wine together helps us relax, unwind and remember where we have been and what we love about each other. So you can imagine how pleased and surprised we were in early January to hear Dr. Oz, as part of the new guidance on alcohol consumption, say: “In the best-case scenario, I don’t think you should drink alcohol, but it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize, and there’s probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way.” That the two of us share passions and express them in distinctively different ways is one of the things that we love about each other. To romance!
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher conceived and wrote The Wall Street Journal’s wine column, “Tastings,” from 1998 to 2010. Dorothy and John have been tasting and studying wine since 1973. In 2020, the University of California at Davis added their papers to the Warren Winiarski Wine Writers Collection in its library, which also includes the work of Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. Dottie has had a distinguished career in journalism as a reporter, editor, columnist and editorial writer at The Miami Herald, The New York Times, and at The Journal. John was Page One Editor of The Journal, City Editor of The Miami Herald and a senior editor at Bloomberg News. They are well-known from their books and many television appearances, especially on Martha Stewart’s show, and as the creators of the annual, international “Open That Bottle Night” celebration of wine and friendship. The first bottle they shared was André Cold Duck. They have two daughters.
