Open That Bottle Night

Stories about 2009 Open That Bottle Night (page 4)

(from Jesús M., Venezuela, day after OTBN 2009)

it was such a wonderful experience...

as a writer I tend to save my bottles for prizes, books releases and such events but since I discovered recently Open That Bottle Night i found a new reason to celebrate life and wine with my wife and my 6 and a half months old child.

I decided to open my Nieto Senetiner Cadus Malbec 2002, which i had from almost two years. I recently tasted the Cadus 2004 and was very impressed with fruit concentration, so i wanted to taste this.

I cooked some meat which originally was supposed to become philly cheese steak sandwiches but they were so gorgeous I ate them with cassava and home made biscuit (I baked them 20 minutes before service).

---

(from David & Judy S. and Ron & Margaret N. of Illinois)

Our group of four celebrated "Open That Bottle Night" on Saturday night, Feb. 28th, as follows:

With our appetizer (shrimp cocktail) we enjoyed a bottle of 2004 Kistler Dutton Ranch Russian River Valley Chardonnay.  This 2004 Dutton Ranch Russian River Valley Chardonnay was part of the first shipment that I received from Kistler about 3-4 years ago, and we had been saving it for a special occasion.    The Kistler wine has a great reputation, so we were all very eager to try it.  We decided:  Why wait, let's drink it.   We found that the Kistler Chardonnay was excellent - we agreed it was the best Chardonnay we had ever tasted.

With our dinner (beef tenderloin, baked potatoes and cooked carrots), we had two bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon - both of which I decanted for about 4-5 hours.  The first bottle was a 2002 St. Francis Kings Ridge Vineyards Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.   We have visited St. Francis Vineyards in Sonoma  three times, where we have enjoyed the wine & charcuterie (a pairing of fine wines with gourmet appetizers).   St. Francis is one of our favorite wineries, and we had been saving this 2002 Kings Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon for about 3-4 years, and waiting for a special occasion to enjoy it.   Again, we decided:  Why wait, let's drink it.   This wine, which is St. Francis' best Cabernet Sauvignon was outstanding, and we agreed it was among the best Cabs we have tasted.    We also enjoyed a bottle of 1992 Burgess Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.   Although we had high hopes for this 1992 vintage, all of us were disappointed in it.  The 1992 Burgess did not compare to the 2002 St. Francis Cab.

After dinner, we adjourned to the family room with some Gevalia coffee to watch the DVD "Bottle Shock," which is a movie re-enacting the "Judgment of Paris of 1976."   We all thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  In summary, our first annual "Open That Bottle Night" was a huge success.

---

(from Colleen D. of New York City)
Last spring, I helped a friend move ...and for that, I got her lasting appreciation and also an unexpected gift: a 1998 Chateau de Sales Pomerol Bordeaux. (The provenance was a bit shady, but I believe she won the $49 bottle as a door prize at a party.) Lacking a wine cellar (or even a wine refrigerator) in my studio apartment, I stored it in a dark closet -- and waited for that special occasion, which turned out to be Open That Bottle Night.

I headed down to Christopher Street, where my drinking partner (and main squeeze) Rodger and I sipped the wine throughout the night. He is much more sophisticated in his wine knowledge than I am, and has a lovely New Zealand accent to boot, so his comments about the wine far transcended mine. He liked how it was "sweaty leathery" with a "sweet earthy smell" and "spiciness of a cigarbox." I wasn't sure if I was intimidated by the occasion, the wine, the loud street noise of the West Village, but all I could come up with was that the wine smelled "like new carpet" with a "bite to it" and was "anything but gulpable."  Our reaction to the wine was mixed - he clearly enjoyed it, while I was perhaps thrown by something that didn't taste like the big (maybe over-the-top?) $10 Shiraz, Cabs and Malbecs that I usually drink.

But it was a learning experience...and a fun, delicious experiment. And the label really comes off when you stick the bottle in a hot oven, something I tried the next morning with memories of a special wine, with a special person, still fresh on my mind.

---

(from Richard S. and Barbara H. of Washington State)
Ok, it's not much of a wine cellar, but it is ours, and we do have about 40 bottles of mostly Washington wine (where we live) and it was time to drink one (or two).  We invited a friend who is a real wine connoisseur but he couldn't make it.  We invited another friend who we like but hadn't had much recent contact with and Saturday was the right night.  As our guest is a bachelor, we decided on home-cooked comfort food.  We started with crab salad on endive and offered champage or chardonnay.  He doesn't like white wine so we started in on the red - 2004, Col Solare from Chateau St. Michelle in Washington.  Excellent, so it's not "proper" with crab salad  - who cares?  The dinner was pot roast, which Barbara has mastered.  With the main course we served Woodward Canyon "Old Vines" Cabernet Sauvigon, 2004.  It was named as one of Washington's finest a year ago and it lives up to its reputation.  For dessert, we served another Chef's specialty: Key Lime Pie and had some Grand Marinier to top it off.

A wonderful evening of good conversation with a good friend and all thanks to Open That Bottle Night, or the wine would still be on the shelf instead of being enjoyed!

---

For even more stories, please click here.

Please send your plans, stories and photos of Open That Bottle Night to OTBN@OpenThatBottleNight.com

 

You might indicate where you were, how many people participated, the significance of the bottles that you opened, and anything else that would show why the evening was special for you.