The column, which appears each Friday in the paper's Weekend Journal, was originated by the couple in March 1998 with the initial issue of Weekend Journal. Ms. Gaiter and Mr. Brecher also write a monthly column for SmartMoney magazine and are authors of the four books, including "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine: New and Improved," published by Broadway Books; "Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage," published by Random House; and "Wine for Every Day and Every Occasion: Red, White and Bubbly to Celebrate the Joy of Living," published by William Morrow. They have appeared extensively on radio and television, including appearances on Martha Stewart Living, CBS Sunday Morning, the Today show, CNN and CNBC. They are the inventors of an annual international wine event called "Open That Bottle Night" that appeared as a question on Jeopardy in 2005.

Ms. Gaiter joined the Journal's New York bureau in December 1990 as a reporter with the enterprise section. In January 1993, she began covering urban affairs, and in September 1994, she became assistant bureau manager for urban affairs. She was named news editor for the Journal's urban affairs coverage in January 1999 and continued to report and write on urban and race issues as well as working with other Journal editors and bureau chiefs to stimulate and refine the paper's coverage of urban affairs. In 2000, she began concentrating full time on the "Tastings" column and related activities.

From 1973 to 1979, Ms. Gaiter was a reporter and editor at the Miami (Fla.) Herald. She moved to the Miami News, where she was night city editor in 1979, and the following year she became a reporter at the New York Times. She returned to the Miami Herald as an editorial writer and columnist in 1984.

Ms. Gaiter received a 1998 Front Page Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York in the beat reporting category. She and Mr. Brecher were awarded a second-place prize in the feature column category of the 1999 National Headliner Awards for their wine columns.

A native of Red Bank, N.J., Ms. Gaiter earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia. While a university student, she had summer internships at the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, the Evening Independent in St. Petersburg and the Capitol Canon, a Tallahassee, Fla., weekly.

Mr. Brecher was page one editor of the Journal from November 1992 until March 2000, when the demands of the wine column required his full attention. While page one editor, he was responsible for all articles and columns that appeared on the paper's front page. During that time, the Journal won eight Pulitzer Prizes for articles that appeared on page one.

In 1983, Mr. Brecher joined the New York bureau of the Journal as a copy editor working with the Journal's second-front staff. The following year he moved to the Miami (Fla.) Herald as city editor and was named assistant managing editor 1989. He returned to the Journal in 1990 as a senior special writer with the page-one staff in New York. Two years later, he was named page one editor.

Mr. Brecher began his journalism career in 1973 as a reporter at the Miami Herald, where he later held various editing jobs, including deputy city editor. In 1980, he left the Herald to become a general editor, both in the foreign and business departments, at Newsweek magazine in New York.

Mr. Brecher, who grew up in Jacksonville, Fla., earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia College at Columbia University. While at Columbia, he was editor in chief of the Daily Spectator and an intern in the Journal's Cleveland bureau. He was also an intern at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

Mr. Brecher and Ms. Gaiter live in New York with their two children, Media and Zoë.