Wall Street Journal wine columnists John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter have quietly announced their departure. Their Christmas Day column, the 579th piece they have jointly penned together, will be their last at the Journal.

This unannounced departure of the unique husband and wife wine journalists represents yet another brick falling from the crumbling wall of professional wine journalism. The word on the street suggests that while the Journal has no intention of discontinuing its wine coverage, this was a layoff along the lines of so many that have occurred in the last 18 months. In short, the Journal wants to pay only a single salary instead of two very expensive ones.

It’s not hard to understand the priorities of the business, especially in an environment of increasing desertification of print advertising. But if the paper can’t be criticized for this cost cutting measure, we can certainly bemoan the circumstances that led to it, as well as the loss of two unique voices in the world of wine criticism.

While I must admit that I often wondered at the seeming mismatch between Dottie and John’s style of wine criticism in contrast with the Journal’s more staid and precise tone, I adore the duo’s philosophy when it comes to wine drinking, which they quite beautifully summed up in their final column.

The wine world still suffers from too much stuffiness, and Dottie and John cut through that in many ways, from their steadfast use of their personal rating scale (from Yuck to Delicious!) to their concept of Open That Bottle Night, where readers were encouraged to stop saving that “special bottle” for an occasion that never comes.

More than anything, Dottie and John achieved a rare feat in journalism, at once holding the roles of critics, yet remaining perfectly accessible to and empathetic with their readers. Their columns were quite personal in ways that few columns of any kind are, in or out of the wine world. Their joint memoir Love by the Glass, which I’ve reviewed here on Vinography, provided even more of the same.

I’ve spoken more than once on panels with titles that were some variation on “The Future of Wine Writing” but I don’t have any powerful answers for where things are going. All I know is that things are changing fundamentally, and that the future won’t look anything like the past.

Here’s hoping that future has room for voices like Dottie’s and John’s, else they and many others will be missed.

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It’s hard to believe that in the early 1990’s less than 100 acres of vineyards were planted in Chile’s Casablanca valley. In little more than two decades, this region of Chile has surged in growth and popularity, and is currently producing excellent wines that generally represent excellent values on the world market. The region is currently home to more than 10,000 acres of vineyards.

Back when the grape acreage was still in the triple digits Agustin Huneeus decided that the Casablanca valley was one of Chile’s most promising wine regions, and that he needed to start making wine there. Not surprisingly, the world took notice. Huneeus was not just any aspiring winemaker. Indeed, by 1990 Huneeus could lay claim to being one of Chile’s first great modern wine pioneers.

In 1960 Agustin Huneeus entered the Chilean wine scene by becoming CEO and majority owner of Concha y Toro, the wine brand that would eventually put Chile on the wine map for the rest of the world. In 1971 the political climate in Chile became unstable and Huneeus left for the United States, where he took over the helm of the beverage giant Seagrams Worldwide for a time, as well as Franciscan winery in Napa. He went on to purchase the Quintessa winery in 1989, and more recently, Flowers Winery on the Sonoma Coast.

The early 1990’s were calmer times in Chile, and Huneeus was afforded the opportunity to spend more time in his home country exploring the continually expanding wine regions, including the Casablanca Valley. These explorations turned serious rather quickly, and before long Huneeus was the proprietor of a brand new Chilean winery called Veramonte.

Driving west from Santiago out towards the cooler coastal region of Casablanca valley, the highway maces several graceful curves up an incline and then enters a very long tunnel that bores through Chile’s coastal range. When the road finally emerges again into daylight it caresses the apex of a triangular valley that lies between two mountain ridges and fans in a gradually broadening arc towards the Pacific ocean about 25 miles away.

At this narrow apex, the vineyards begin immediately, sneaking down the hillsides into a the flatlands as the valley widens, and surrounding the massive yellowish stone building that is the Veramonte winery.

Veramonte is a well established and massive producer of Chilean wine — an easily recognizable brand for anyone who strays into the global section of their wine shops, as well as those who have a thirst for reasonably priced Sauvignon Blanc, of which Veramonte makes a seemingly never-ending supply.

It is easy to dismiss Veramonte as yet another massive industrial Global producer, but that would be short-sighted, and would belie the quality of Veramonte’s wines. At the scale of hundreds of thousands of cases made per year, they are hardly artisans, but the Veramonte wine portfolio is significantly higher in quality than most producers their size.

The winery’s 1100 acre vineyard in the Casablanca valley is one of the country’s largest, and section by section, it is gradually being converted to organic farming, with wildflowers bursting up between the rows, and huge piles of compost dotting the roadsides.

On my recent trip to Chile I had an opportunity to sample a few of the winery’s current releases. The wines were not all amazing, but as usual, the best of them represent some of the best wine values on the planet today.

TASTING NOTES:

2009 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc, Casablanca Valley, Chile
Pale gold in the glass, this wine smells of gooseberry and passionfruit, with a hint of grassiness. in the mouth it is juicy and bright, with kiwi and passionfruit flavors, hints of green grass and lime juice. Very clean, very crisp, very refreshing. 95,000 cases made of which 65% are sold in the United States. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $10. Click to buy.

2008 Veramonte Chardonnay Reserva, Casablanca Valley, Chile
Yellow-gold in color, this wine smells of buttered popcorn, cold cream and pineapple. In the mouth it tastes of buttered sourdough toast, pastry cream, and lemon zest. Hints of pineapple emerge on the finish. Solid but not spectacular. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $10. Click to buy.

2008 Veramonte Pinot Noir, Casablanca Valley, Chile
Medium ruby in color, this wine smells of wet wool, cranberry and apple juice. In the mouth it is soft in feel, with cranberry and cherry flavors that are somewhat clunky. A wet dirt flavor emerges in the finish along with wet wood. Tastes incomplete. Score: between 7.5 and 8. Cost: $14.99.

2008 Veramonte “Ritual” Pinot Noir Casablanca Valley, Chile
Medium ruby in color, this wine smells of cedar and sandalwood, with cranberry and cherry aromas as well. In the mouth it is exceedingly silky with cedar and cranberry flavors with cherry and spices. Nice character and personality. Good acidity, very light tannins. Red apple skin barely peeks through in the finish. New world styled, but not egregiously so. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $20. Click to buy.

2007 Veramonte “Primus” Red Blend, Casablanca Valley, Chile
Dark ruby in the glass, this wine has a nose of sweet cherry and plum, with hints of cassis. In the mouth it is gorgeously balanced, incredibly smooth, with a hint of velvety tannin but barely so. Really integrated and silky, hint of earthiness and a balsamic quality. Beautiful. The blend of this wine has shifted over the last couple years to be less Carmenere and more Cabernet, with the addition of some Syrah as well. The 2007 is 36% Cabernet, 31% Syrah, 15% Carmenere, 8% Merlot. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $20. Click to buy.

In addition the wines above, the winery also produces a Merlot, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a rosé, and a Malbec from Argentina.

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We’re headed into the final stretches of the holiday craziness. If you’re like me, you’ve already started to consume wine in rough proportion to the number of presents left to wrap, and you find yourself wishing that everyone else around you would start drinking, too.

But even as the stress of the holidays mount to a fever pitch, we need to make sure that we keep it all in perspective. We’re all incredibly lucky to be sitting under a roof somewhere with electricity and heat and clean water and food in the fridge. There are those whose survival, let alone comfort is much less assured than ours.

Which is why, every year, lots of us bloggers get together to run Menu For Hope.

There are just two more days left in this charity raffle, where a $10 donation to the World Food Programme gets you a raffle ticket and a chance to win the item of your choice from one of hundreds of fantastic things around the world.

I am the host of the wine related prizes, of course.

Since I posted the original list, I’ve added several fantastic prizes, including:

- A spa vacation at Meadowood Napa Valley
- A magnum of Torbreck Wine from Australia
- A overnight stay in a B&B in Napa with a private wine tasting tour
- A cashmere and Cabernet combo

Plus, there are lots of other wine related items from other regions around the world.

What’s more, the folks behind the scenes at A Menu For Hope have designed an incredibly cool bidding tool / donation wizard that eliminates the clunky copy/paste work that you normally have to do. Check it out. It’s a one-stop shop for bidding on any raffle item, and it also shows which items have more bids, and which ones are receiving less attention (and you are therefore much more likely to win!).

For those of you that have already donated, thank you so much. Based on your generosity we have already raised more than $40,000 for struggling African farmers. For those of you who haven’t yet donated, I would like to appeal to several of your key sensibilities. Please consider even a $10 donation, knowing that it might just land you a vacation, a case of wine, or anything else that you might enjoy.

Check out the full list of available prizes and help us out.

Happy Holidays,

Alder

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