Hoping this is more like a "break"

I just typed up an entry on the Purple Teeth Cellars website about the demise of a column that has become regular reading here in the Beck household - the "Tastings" column from the Wall Street Journal. Needless to say, I am not happy about this development.

We have blogged in the past (see here and here) about one of the column's biggest contributions to the wine drinkers' community - Open That Bottle Night. People around the world celebrate it in different ways, but we do a potluck with friends at the house with everyone bringing a wine that focuses on a fun story about how the bottle was procured.

I don't see the tradition ending in the Beck household just because Dottie and John aren't writing their column for the WSJ anymore. I just hope that they are taking a break and will pop up in a new forum that truly showcases their talent for writing and love for wine.

I already know that I am making the cassoulet from Madison Park Cafe for our part of the 2010 OTBN potluck and I am darned excited about it now that I received a couple of pointers after giving it a go earlier this month! So I'll be raising my glass to Dottie and John anyway. Hope you do the same if you do some version of OTBN or have read their column or one of their books.

In honor of Dottie and John's rating system for wine, I give the cessation of the column a big, fat "Yech!" (you can all imagine what that rating means).