Bottle of Wine Recommendations By Dorothy Gaiter – ‘Love by The Glass’
When Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher’s bottle of wine recommendations disappeared in December of 2010, we lost an important, practical pair of voices. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, these two brought wine down to earth, describing it as something we mortals might enjoy.
Alas, changes at the Wall Street Journal brought to end their tenure and left the rest of us minus even-tempered thoughts about wine. We’ve been without their ‘Tastings’ column for close to three years. Their only presence was an occasional Facebook post or guest appearance on a web video or television.
Thankfully, Dorothy is now writing about wine again (but not John.) Dorothy will be working as a senior editor and monthly columnist for a new website, GrapeCollective.com. Her first column is short but sweet, about the beauty of rosé in the fall and how it keeps the summer alive while we wait for winter (and darker, heavier wines.)
GrapeCollective.com is a hybrid website bringing writers like Dorothy to the forefront, along with such critics as Kristen Bieler, Jim Clarke, Alia Akkam, John Hopkins, Anthony Giglio, Edard Lewine (now that’s a name for a wine critic!) and Megan Stocker. We won’t pretend to know of their writings, but if they’re associated with Ms. Gaiter, we’ll give them a read.
Why do we call this a hybrid site? Because it’s a wine critique that’s commercial as well. When they critique wines, that bottle of wine (or similar bottles) will be available for purchase.
By example with Dorothy’s column, ‘Love by the Glass’, they offered two rosé bottles of wine, a 2012 Crios Rosé of Malbec at $12 ($12 in a web search) and Château la Moulienere Rosé for $9.99 (web pricing at $9.99.) We could not find much variety of comparison pricing on the web for these two, but we found more for Zinfandel – see below.)
They didn’t offer the wine she wrote of, a 2012 Lionel Osmin Villa La Vie en Rose (at $12 – these two always love a good bargain – which is why we believe they are no longer at the WSJ whose new writers opine about the high end of the market.) The price of the site’s offerings were not bad, shipping doubled the total. Federal Express home delivery was $13, second day delivery was $18 and standard overnight was $32.
‘Her first column was short but sweet, about the beauty of rosé in the fall and how it keeps the summer alive while we wait for winter (and darker, heavier wines.)’
You can also search GrapeCollective’s cellar database of wine, clicking on filters on the front page. Clicking California Zinfandels, we found a 2010 Robert Biale Black Chicken Zinfandel at $42.99 ($34-$42 on a web search) and a 2011 Sonoma Seghesio Family Vinyards Zinfandel at $25.99 (web searched at $12-$19.) Clicking on Argentina, five wines ranging from $11 to $44 were offered. None are wines with which we are familiar.
So we look forward to reading Ms. Gaiter’s thoughts again. It’s been a long time without her sensible and unflappable thoughts about wine. Welcome back!
Bill Hodge & Erin O’Neill-Hodge enjoy a good bottle of wine, visiting and enjoying California wineries from Lake County to Orange County, from the Paso Robles Gold Coast to Gold Country and from Lodi to Bakersfield.
