Howard Goldberg was friend of mine. More importantly, he has a stellar career with the New York Times. There have been some wonderful writings by other, more capable hands than mine. Stuart Pigott and Bruce Sanderson were first and foremost. I missed Howard's memorial service and will in fact kick myself endlessly for not attending. But while Howard was celebrated as a kind soul, and caring husband, and a wonderful wine scribe, I have hopefully come to praise him for way more than that.
Howard was a pioneer. As a writer for a major newspaper, the "Paper of Record" no less, he was Promethean in his coverage of small, as yet undiscovered regions. He wrote seriously about such burgeoning wine regions as Long Island, the Hudson Valley, the Finger Lakes, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia and Texas when few other such established columnists weren't. He helped put east coast winemaking on the map. His recognition, and his paper's imperator, were invaluable to their infant regions. He gave these regions legitimacy! He gave them class!
Howard G. Goldberg was an editor at the New York Times from 1970 to 2004 including 23 years as an editor on the Times’ Op-Ed page. He began contributing wine articles in the mid-1980s and in 1987 wrote the Wine Talk column for a period. Goldberg was editor of The New York Times Book of Wine: More Than 30 Years of Vintage Writing, and wrote for Decanter. He passed away January 8, 2021.
I had known Howard G. Goldberg since the late 1990s. He was already writing about wine by then. He had spent 23 of his 34 years at the times writing the Op Ed page.
I got Howard to agree to work on a book with us while I was still at Running Press. He did a book on how to cellar wine entitled ALL ABOUT WINE CELLARS. Many years later he worked on another book with us while I was at Sterling Publishing, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF WINE with Eric Asimov.
In that time he and I shared dozens of lunches. And an absolute love of the Yankees, Especially those teams from the 40s and 50s.
He grew up a North Jersey boy. He was born on October 10, 1934 to Mr. & Mrs. Maurice F Goldberg (she, later, Mrs. Harry Karlin by 1968) in Newark, NJ. He had a fascination with the boats that went up and down the Hudson river and the trains that went to and from the city and back. He never moved very far from home ending up essentially just across the Hudson on Riverside Drive. He enjoyed going to see the Newark Bears, A minor-league team of the New York Yankees.
"In '46, the Bears had hustlers like the classy third baseman Bobby Brown, who became a Yankee star in '47, a cardiologist and eventually president of the American League. His roommate was a squat comer named Yogi Berra. If the Bears were sort of feisty, the Newark Eagles, a combative black team owned by Effa Manley of Newark, were fiery. My Yankee-loving father, who was a shoe salesman at Kresge's department store and an unprejudiced man (Sonny Greer, his good boyhood friend in Long Branch, became Duke Ellington's drummer), said ''they play a better brand of baseball'' than the Bears. Indeed they did. In 1946 the Eagles won the Negro leagues' world series, beating the Kansas City Monarchs. " remembered Howard more than 40 years later. " I don't recall who won that game in Newark. But I can still see the stylish Robinson hustling nonstop the way the black guys did in Felix Fuld softball warfare. He twinkled in a knowing way; so did they as they expertly fouled balls that broke windows on the white side. I began buying The Sporting News to follow the Royals, as Jackie paced them with a .349 batting average to the International League pennant and victory in the Little World Series over -- oh, compensatory justice! -- the Louisville Colonels of the American Association." His passions for Newark never wavered, and his love of the Bears was renewed when minor league baseball returned to that city in 1999 (they folded in 2013). Many years later, when I was working on my books about Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto he would constantly pepper me with stories of going to the ball parks and watching them.
Howard attended Rutgers University. Before joining the New York Times, where he would spend the remainder of his life, he was the Managing Editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (one of Israel's largest news outlets even today).
Howard's rock in life was his wife of 50 years, Beatrice Tauss, a brilliant mind in her own right. Under her maiden name, she had a long and distinguished career teaching literature and drama at the Juilliard School. Earlier, she taught English to foreigners at Columbia. She was a published short-story writer. Mrs. Goldberg held a Hunter bachelor's degree, a Columbia master's, and a Columbia Ph.D based on her English translation of Luigi Pirandello's play "Tutto per Bene." They were wed on September 9, 1968. She was a professor, he was already an editor.
Then he edited the New York Times Op-Ed page for approximately 20 years, before slowly becoming a writer for the paper of record. Searches through the New York Times archive reveal Howard's first byline (despite editing and even writing the Editorial Page) was not until 1984, when he wrote an article about Reagan preparing for his State of the Union Address as it appeared to himself and his fellow New Yorkers. It was entitled, "THE ANNUAL 'STATE OF THE APARTMENT' ADDRESS TO 18A" It was a tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek piece combining Reagan's address and apartment living in NYC in that period.
Writing witfully about the apartment building's Foreign Affairs" he joked, "As for foreign policy, I strongly recommend that we learn the names of the next-door neighbors. If our domestic priorities intervene, however, we can put that off until 1985." Later that year he wrote a wonderful column entitled "Musings on a Fall Catalogue."
Howard's first wine column was published in November of 1984, entitled "THE BIG GRAPE: NOUVEAU YORK CITY". It was again a much more comically written piece wherein Howard scribbled, "The wine merchant William Sokolin, in a published letter commenting on how to produce good vintages, has suggested that cabernet sauvignon grapes should be planted in Central Park. In fuller bloom, that idea offers the prospect of a new New York - or, more aptly, a new Nouveau York. In short, turn Manhattan into a vineyard." From 1985 to through more than a decade, he wrote about internationals wines as well as local.
But it was in the Fall of 1984 that the Howard important to the local wine industry really shone. He wrote a massive report on Finger Lakes wines in 1984, and another massive piece just a month later on the wineries of the Hudson Valley. In 1986 he wrote an article on the effects of Hugh Cary's Farm Wineries Act. In 1987 he started writing about Long Island chardonnay. He interview John Dyson; covered the merger of Glenora Wine Cellars and Finger Lakes Wine Cellars; he wrote on the wineries of Texas in 1987; did a massive piece on New Jersey wineries; that same year he wrote a sizable piece on appreciating whiskey; and in 1988 wrote about the Virginia wine scene.
In June of 1988 he published a piece entitled, "New York's Wineries Chart Their Move Toward Vinifera", writing "New York State's wine revolution was born here in 1963 on a scenic slope overlooking Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes region. Today, according to vintners who attended a symposium in mid-June, the 25-year-old revolution is accelerating faster than ever. It is a revolution based on European vinifera grapes." That same year he gave equal space to the new hybrids being developed at Cornell.
He also wrote a wonderful article about home winemaking. Howard wrote, "Robert Hutton, who catalogues wine books for the Library of Congress, has no illusions about his ability as a home wine maker. Each fall he transforms red Marechal Foch and baco noir grapes from 12 vines in his Alexandria, Va., backyard into what he and the Germans call dreimannerwein: three-man wine."
Returning to the Hudson Valley, Howard wrote in 1990, "The Hudson River Valley, whose wines are slowly gaining acceptance, is the nation's oldest winegrowing region. Wines have been made in the area since French Huguenot refugees settled in New Paltz, N.Y., in 1677. But the region's modern revival began in 1971, when the promotion-minded Mark Miller established the Benmarl Wine Company in Marlboro. Eighteen active wineries now dot the river's east and west sides -- all within a two-and-a-half-hour drive from New York City. They range from the 250,000-case-a-year Royal Wine Corporation, which makes only kosher wines, to the tiny Amberleaf Vineyards, which turns out fewer than 400 cases." Just a week later, he wrote again of Long Island in an even longer story.
In 1993 he was covering the Niagara wine region, in Canada. Amd that same year published a substantial piece on Connecticut wine. From there, he increasingly covered New York's three largest regions, and occasionally Connecticut and New Jersey. He published the first of his "LI Vines" columns on July 16, 1995. "He helped to put Long Island wines on the map through his weekly contributions to the Time’s erstwhile Long Island section," wrote Alan J. Wax.
"I had the privilege when I was Executive Director of the Long Island Merlot Alliance to meet and discuss with Howard both his love for wine, and his abiding interest in Long Island Wine," recalled Len Dest. "I recall his words of wisdom, words of enthusiasm and words of caution."
While he covered other wines from around the world, he published these columns until near the end of 1999. He also wrote a Sunday feature called "Wine Under 20". And he became the American-auction columnist for Decanter magazine and the New York correspondent for decanter.com.
I met Howard in late 2001, when I was at Running Press Book Publishers. We had found someone who had developed a wine cellar tracking system that open could download onto a laptop. We wanted to include it in a kit, with bottle stages, a wine journal, and a booklet. I contacted Howard and it was the first of nearly 15 years worth of lunches at i Trulli, one of his favorite Italian Manhattan eateries. He was funny and charming. He had a tremendously dry wit. We spoke of the project, and decided Howard would write a complete book on cellaring. And that, 12 months after the kits were released, we would release his book separately. We released the kit in 2003, and Howard's book in 2004. I think it went through three printings.
Howard published his last piece for the Times December 29, 2002.
We lunched often over the intervening years. Sometimes meeting at tastings, and "schmoozing" as he liked to say. He was always very serious at tastings. But afterwards, he was a delight. In 2009, while I was at Sterling Publishing, we had established a new line of epicure books, and created THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF WINE. Howard again was involved. We worked, and sometimes argued amicably, about the more than 125 articles, interviews, and profiles included in the book. Eric Asimov was kind enough to provide the foreword.
The entire East Coast wine community, especially Long Island, the Hudson Valley, the Finger Lakes, Connecticut, and New Jersey, all owe a debt of gratitude for his years spent covering what was then considered a backwater of the wine world. He spent time shedding as much light on the burgeoning region as he could, when no one else did.
When Lenn Thompson and I first started, Howard, was in his semi-retirement as wine writer but was still the big dog on Long Island. He was always nice to me. I think he was both amused and bewildered and appalled by us.
He had a wonderful dry sense of humor. We spent untold hours needling each other, but always in a fun way. I teased him mercilessly about his age and baseball. And he corrected my emails like an exhausted 5th grade teacher. He hated any time I used the word ‘Amazing.’
Despite my many disappointments to him, one of my biggest thrills was when he posted in 2012, "Enchanted by proofs of "The New York Times Book of Wine," a 559-page anthology of articles, which I've edited." He was thrilled by the book, and I was so happy.
Howard eventually slowed down. I lunched with him once a year, for a while, then that too dribbled away. But we still had spirited conversations online. He was active there for a bunch more years. Eventually, like every one, he was sidelined by age. When his wife Beatrice died, July 19, 2018, it left a massive hole in Howard's world. He carried on bravely.
"When David and I last spoke with Howard, he was living alone and still grieving after losing his beloved wife, Beatrice," wrote friend Melanie Young. "He shared that he was recovering after being hit by a car and was no longer drinking wine. He was so happy to chat with us and said our phone call lifted his spirits."
2020 was troubling. A computer glitch kept him offline. The kind Odila Galer-Noel and Peter Hellman posted a picture of a frail Howard that February. And a slew of folks posted on his Facebook page. Howard's last post on Facebook was on October 11, 2020, when he wrote, "First, you listen to Sophie Tucker sing "My Yiddishe Mama." Second, you reach for the mop." Classic Howard.
"Thinking of you Howard. Happy Hanukkah Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! Hope you’re staying in shape. Yankees are holding a spot for you in the rotation. Yogi says Hi!" I wrote on Howard's facebook page on Christmas Eve 2020, joining a chorus of other who'd left messages to little or no response over the passing months. I never got a response. Then came the awful news through the New York Wine Media Guild that Howard had passed on January 7, 2021.
Stuart Pigott posted, "My old friend in #nyc and longtime Op-Ed editor of The New York Times a great mind, a great wit, a real wine lover and a true gentleman."
"As a journalist, he had humility and strong ethics," wrote Bruce Sanderson of the Wine Spectator.
“Howard had an open invitation to attend, and often did, but he attended as a simple participant,” said Mary Ewing-Mulligan, IWC’s owner. “He had too much humility to share the head table with us; I believe he saw himself as a student of wine rather than as any kind of authority. And his principles as a New York Times writer, before the days of his wine column and after, held so much importance to him that he would not risk even the appearance of impropriety by seeming to be partial to one producer or trade organization over another.”
"Soft spoken and kind, Goldberg had an incessant curiosity and passion about wine that made him a regular at wine events in New York in the 1980s, ’90s and 2000s," wrote Sanderson.
“He was a fixture at so many Lauber tastings, where we met in the early ’90s,” recalled Tony DiDio, who worked for Lauber Imports for 16 years before founding Tony DiDio Selections in 2009. “We became fast friends, as I was in awe of his knowledge, both of wine and the world. His encyclopedic knowledge of wine and the wine world, set him apart from most journalists, for it was coupled with honesty and passion.”
"Howard was the New York Times wine columnist for many years, and he was the man who “discovered” me, in a column from July 15, 1987. The precursor to the modern organization Wines Of Germany had staged a tasting of the 1986 vintage in NYC, to which I sent a lot of samples. Howard noticed that most of his favorite wines had my name on them, and he reached out to me," wrote Terry Theise. "I benefited from many such courtesies from Howard in the ensuing years – my goodness, decades – and after he retired from the Times I felt he drew me closer, freed from concern about showing favoritism. I’m sure I’m not unique. Nor is this a story of what Howard did for me. I wasn’t his friend, but more than an acquaintance, something like a spirit-kin without a social relationship to which to anchor it. I think if I’d lived in New York we might have been more chummy, and I envy those among you who saw more of Howard than I did."
"Howard was a very thoughtful man. There was one memory of him that stood out, "I heard yesterday that Howard had died after a cardiac arrest. He was a long time Op-Ed writer for the NYT, and wrote a weekly wine column for them. He was also a very nice man. My best memory of him was when we were walking back after a tasting, and I asked if there was any of his Op-Ed columns that stood out for him. He thought for a moment and talked about one marking a major anniversary of Kristallnact 1938, when Nazis torched synagogues, murdered several hundred Jews and arrested 30,000 who ended up in the camps. It was a horrific and pivotal moment in the Holocaust," remembered Mark Golodetz, a member of Wine Berkshers (a wine appreciate group based in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. "That morning Howard sat on the subway, and watched an old Hasid read the column, carefully tear it out of the newspaper and wrap it in his wallet. No words, no tears but a look of true pain on his face. I don’t want to put it in the context of yesterday’s events, except to say, it was a fitting way to remember the gentle Howard Goldberg."
"We met for coffee on 113th Street, on the Upper West Side; it was his native land," wrote Joshua Greene, who visited Howard after Beatrice's passing. "Howard brought a sad smile and a wistful remembrance of Beatrice; she had accompanied him to any number of wine events in New York, which is how I knew her; she had also accompanied him to many New York Times events during his tenure as an editor there starting in 1970, and later as a wine writer for the paper beginning in 1984. Howard himself had accompanied so many of us on the wine writer circuit at seminars, tastings and dinners, bringing his wit, his gentle charm and his pointed intellect."
Howard will be missed. And we will chuckle at the next wine tasting, and raise a glass.
And Howard, I hope you got to meet Yogi, Scooter, and Jackie while you are at it.
Other pieces about Howard:
Goldberg on Robinson: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/08/nyregion/soapbox-my-bears.html
Bruce Sanderson: https://www.winespectator.com/articles/remembering-wine-writer-howard-goldberg
Theise: https://www.terrytheise.com/post/an-appreciation
Star studded remembrances: https://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataId=240240
Greene: https://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com/news/a-remembrance-howard-goldberg