Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, Senior Editors, Grape Collective (New York, USA)

Years In Industry:
We are lifelong journalists. We have been enjoying and studying wine together since we met in 1973 at The Miami Herald. But it was a private passion that was known to relatives, friends and colleagues. We had never written a word about wine until The Wall Street Journal, where we both held important newsroom roles, launched Weekend Journal in 1998. They asked us to create and write a weekly wine column (in addition to our “real” jobs), which became “Tastings.” It was an immediate hit.

We became regulars on Martha Stewart’s show and appeared on TV and radio shows from “Today” to “Fresh Air.” We also wrote four books and invented the international celebration of wine and friendship called Open That Bottle Night. We became full-time wine writers in 2000. We wrapped up that column at the end of 2009 and now write every other week for Grape Collective, an online magazine. The University of California at Davis has asked for our papers for the Warren Winiarski Wine Writer Collection, alongside some heroes of ours such as Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, which is a great honor.

Our Biggest Challenge To Wellness:
When we were writing the column for The Journal, we blind-tasted six to 10 wines every night and then worked all day in the office on the column – in addition to raising two sweet and demanding little girls, Media and Zoë. That was our most challenging time in terms of our wellness because we had so little time to ourselves. Even though our children are grown, we still find that we’re far busier than we’d imagine, which is great – but does present a challenge in terms of taking time for ourselves.

How We Keep It Together To Stay Well:
Most of all, we have each other and our daughters, and as of last summer, a son-in-law. We are always there for each other and there’s nothing more important than that. Sharing wine, of course, also helps. When we drink wine, it makes us slow down and when we do, we look at each other and listen to each other more intently, which of course leads us to fall in love with each other all over again.
We have two art-filled residences, where music is always playing, and they’re a huge help, too. One is in Manhattan, across from Central Park and a short subway ride to theaters and interesting restaurants. The other is our “country cabin” in Westchester where we’re surrounded by nature. We spend half the week there and every day that we’re there, we pull up chairs, open a bottle of wine, and watch the sunset and talk.

Dottie loves to cook and read. These give her an outlet for her creativity and some time where she is largely by herself. She’s also a vintage clothes fanatic. Shopping in thrift shops can be great therapy, interacting with a broad cross-section of people, hunting for beautiful things.

John runs. He has run for many years. While he has run the New York City Marathon, he moves at a leisurely pace and has never cared much about his time. This is his alone time. It’s also his creative time. From time to time, people have asked John if he runs for his health. He does – his mental health. (And, whether you are a runner or not, you should read “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami.)
 
You can connect with Dottie and John on Instagram: @dottieandjohn Facebook: @winecouple and Twitter: @winecouple or online at GrapeCollective.com