Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher Papers, 1971-2019

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Summary

Abstract:
The Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher Papers document the couple's career in wine writing from 1998-2009. The collection includes forty-four albums of labels and tasting notes related to the Wall Street Journal column "Tastings" (1998-2009), select pieces of art, publication materials, notes, assorted news stories and clippings, and materials related to their books The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine (1999), The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine: New and Improved (2002), Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage (2002), and Wine for Every Occasion: Red, White, and Bubbly to Celebrate the Joy of Living (2004). Also included are letters from readers, recordings of their television appearances, materials related to Open That Bottle Night, and born-digital materials including email correspondence and article drafts.
Extent:
24.8 linear feet
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher Papers, D-669, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

Background

Scope and content:

The Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher Papers thoroughly document the couple's life in wine appreciation and wine writing. Currently, the collection documents Gaiter and Brecher's work from 1998-2009. The collection includes forty-four albums of labels and tasting notes related to the Wall Street Journal column "Tastings" (1998-2009) and select pieces of art that accompanied the column. Also included are publication materials, notes, and assorted news stories and clippings, as well as materials related to their books The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine (1999), The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine: New and Improved (2002), Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage (2002), and Wine for Every Occasion: Red, White, and Bubbly to Celebrate the Joy of Living (2004). Letters from readers, recordings of their appearances on national television, materials related to Open That Bottle Night, and born-digital materials including email correspondence and article drafts are also represented in the collection.

Biographical / historical:

Award-winning journalists Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher have been exploring wine together for more than thirty years. The couple met in June of 1973 while working at the Miami Herald and, thanks to a gift of Alexis Bespaloff's The New Signet Book of Wine from John's brother, soon began sampling wines and keeping track of what they had tried. For twenty-five years, the two kept notes on thousands of bottles of wine tied to large and small moments in their lives.

Dorothy J. Gaiter:

Dorothy "Dottie" J. Gaiter earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia. As an African American female journalist, she was a founding editor of the Black students' newspaper, Blackout, while she was a university student. She began her journalism career in 1973 at the Miami Herald, where she was a reporter and editor until 1979. She moved to the now-defunct Miami News as a night city editor in 1979. In 1980, she joined the New York Times, where she was a reporter and an editor. She returned to the Miami Herald as an editorial writer and columnist in 1984.

Gaiter joined the Wall Street Journal's New York bureau in December 1990 as a reporter writing about minority and women-owned businesses. In January 1993, she began covering urban affairs, and in September 1994, she became deputy news editor for urban affairs. She was named news editor for the Journal's urban affairs coverage in January 1999. She continued to report and write on urban and race issues while working with other Journal editors and bureau chiefs to stimulate and refine the paper's coverage of urban affairs. The Journal nominated her work on race for the Pulitzer Prize twice. In 1998, she received a Front Page Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York in the beat reporting category.

John Brecher:

John Brecher earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia University. While at Columbia, he was editor-in-chief of the Daily Spectator and an intern in the Wall Street Journal's Cleveland bureau. He began his journalism career in 1973 as a reporter at the Miami Herald and held various editor positions. In 1983, he joined the New York bureau of the Wall Street Journal as a copy editor but moved back to the Miami Herald as a city editor in 1984 and was named assistant managing editor in 1989.

He returned to the Wall Street Journal in 1990 as a senior special writer in New York, and two years later, he was named page one editor. He was page one editor for the Wall Street Journal from November 1992 until March 2000. During his tenure as page one editor, the Wall Street Journal won eight Pulitzer Prizes for articles that appeared on page one.

Dottie and John:

In 1998, Gaiter and Brecher decided to integrate wine writing into their professional lives. Their wine column "Tastings" was part of a new weekend section in the Wall Street Journal and quickly became a success. Gaiter and Brecher wrote in an approachable, engaging way, rating wines "OK," "Good," "Very Good," "Delicious," or "Delicious!"

After two years of writing about hard news and wine while also raising their daughters, Media and Zoë, the couple decided to dedicate their professional time solely to wine writing. They continued to write "Tastings" until late 2009. In 2010, Dorothy J. Gaiter was named Food and Wine Editor for France Magazine. In 2013, she was named Senior Editor for the online wine magazine Grape Collective, where she and John Brecher are now both Senior Editors and continue to write about wine.

Together, Gaiter and Brecher have written the books The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine (1999), The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine: New and Improved (2002), Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage (2002), and Wine for Every Occasion: Red, White, and Bubbly to Celebrate the Joy of Living (2004), made numerous television appearances, and given radio interviews. One of their most enduring legacies is Open That Bottle Night, an annual tradition they created in 1999 to encourage people to open and enjoy a special bottle of wine that they have been saving.

Sources:

Colwell, Sarah. "Wall Street Journal Wine Couple Donate Life's Work to UC Davis Library." UC Davis Library News, 19 February 2020. https://www.library.ucdavis.edu/news/wall-street-journal-wine-couple-donate-lifes-work-to-uc-davis-library/. Accessed 26 February 2020.

"Dorothy J. Gaiter." Wall Street Journal, 2020. https://www.wsj.com/news/author/dorothy%20j.-gaiter. Accessed 26 February 2020.

"Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher." Wikipedia, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Gaiter_and_John_Brecher. Accessed 26 February 2020.

"John Brecher." Wall Street Journal, 2020. https://www.wsj.com/news/author/john-brecher . Accessed 26 February 2020.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, 2020.
Processing information:

Elizabeth Phillips, Manuscripts Archivist, created the collection-level finding aid. Archival Processing Assistants Vanessa Cardona Ocegueda and Michelle Trujillo created the finding aid. Student Assistant Toby Chao assisted in physical arrangement and the creation of the inventory. Head of Archival Processing Jason Sarmiento assisted with the creation of the finding aid.

Arrangement:

The Collection is arranged into eleven series:

  • Series 1: Wine Label Albums
  • Subseries 1.1: 1999 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.2: 2000 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.3: 2001 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.4: 2002 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.5: 2003 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.6: 2004 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.7: 2005 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.8: 2005 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.9: 2006 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.10: 2007 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.11: 2008 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Subseries 1.12: 2009 Wine Tasting Labels
  • Series 2: Tasting Notes
  • Subseries 2.1: 1998 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.2: 1999 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.3: 2000 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.4: 2001 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.5: 2002 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.6: 2003 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.7: 2004 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.8: 2005 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.9: 2006 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.10: 2007 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.11: 2008 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.12: 2009 Notebook
  • Subseries 2.13: Our Own Stuff from 2003 on Notebook
  • Subseries 2.14: Books and Smart Money Notebook
  • Subseries 2.15: 40 Vendimia Bodegas Beronia Notebook
  • Series 3: Reader Notes
  • Series 4: Articles and Publications
  • Subseries 4.1: Restaurant News
  • Subseries 4.2: Smart Money
  • Subseries 4.3: Tastings
  • Subseries 4.4: Wine Notes
  • Subseries 4.5: Weekend Journal section
  • Subseries 4.6: Publications
  • Series 5: Correspondences
  • Subseries 5.1: Emails
  • Subseries 5.2: Handwritten Letters
  • Subseries 5.3: Business Cards
  • Series 6: Research Material
  • Subseries 6.1: Biographical Materials/Personal Papers
  • Subseries 6.2: Drafts and Interviews
  • Subseries 6.3: Menus, Winery Marketing Materials, and Tasting Notes
  • Subseries 6.4: Promotional Materials
  • Series 7: Video and Radio Appearances
  • Sub-series 7.1: Audio Cassette
  • Sub-series 7.2: CD/DVD
  • Sub-series 7.3: VHS
  • Sub-series 7.4: Floppy Disk
  • Series 8: Artwork and Prints
  • Series 9: Artifacts
Physical location:
This collection is stored off-site at the North Regional Library Facility. Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections in advance.
Physical facet:
consists of 22 Record Storage Boxes, 2 Document Cases, and 2 Folio boxes.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The physical items housed in boxes 1-26 are open for research use. Electronic records are not yet processed. Please contact Archives and Special Collections to inquire about access.

Terms of access:

All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher Papers, D-669, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Davis, Special Collections, UC Davis Library
100 NW Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292, US
Contact:
(530) 752-1621
speccoll@ucdavis.edu
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