Open That Bottle Night

Stories about 2009 Open That Bottle Night (page 6)

(from Amy and Reuben P. in Texas)

Here's our story:

OTBN
March 2, 2009

Saturday night, Amy and I celebrated our first “Open That Bottle Night” with a 1999 Chateau St. Jean Reserve Chardonnay.

OTBN, observed on the last Saturday of each February, was started ten years ago by the couple who write the ‘Tastings’ column for The Wall Street Journal, Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher. Though we don’t necessarily read the Journal, we’ve heard the couple speak on NPR a couple of times. Then, they were on ‘Fresh Air’ this past week talking about OBTN and about the importance of finding reasons to celebrate during the tough times we find our country in these days. They have a unique talent for writing and speaking about wine and, in this particular interview, reiterated the importance of celebrating the memories certain bottles of wine hold for their owners. We knew we had that “one bottle” that we were saving and decided to participate this year, the year of our 15th wedding anniversary and a little over a month before our first trip together to the California wine country.

So, about the bottle.

In 2001, I had been working for The Gap for about a year and a half. I was managing a group of stores in my home town and was selected by my district manager to participate in a service group charged with rolling out some project for the stores nationwide. We trained for the project in San Francisco for one week and then traveled the remaining six months, training other managers on this project. Then, once we were done, the company flew us all back to San Francisco for one week of debriefing. Now, by “debriefing,” I mean a hour-long session of communicating our learnings and 4-day, 23-hour vacation filled with dinners, shopping and wine tours. Needless to say, Amy, at home, alone with two kids under five, was unimpressed.

Of course, we were broke. I mean, hell, I was working retail. So, even though she understood I had to attend, it kind of sucked that I was having a good time while she was taking care of the family on a tight budget. So, with what little money I had, I bought one bottle of wine from one of the wineries on the tour. I carried it back and told her that we would save it for a special occasion.

Somehow, that time never came. We moved to Houston about a year later. The wine went with us. I got a job making almost double what I was making at The Gap. The bottle went unopened. We became secure enough that Amy didn’t have to work. There it was, setting in our meager little wine rack. We looked at that bottle every day for nearly ten years and never thought to open it. In fact, it got to the point that we were afraid to drink it because it had sat there for so long.

Finally, after hearing the ‘Fresh Air’ episode last week, I decided it was time to open that bottle. No real anniversary; no special occasion; just a time to drink a good bottle of wine and enjoy each others’ company and the company of our kids. And it was great! The color was a darker gold that we were used to in newer chardonnays, but the flavor was crisp and surprisingly fruity. We finished the bottle unceremoniously - I think Amy was on the phone with her parents and I looking at  a magazine - but the experience was awesome.

Still, at some point we realized that we were really celebrating a number of important events with that bottle: the kids scoring 100s on their TAKs tests, Sidney’s first football game, Caitlin’s improved time on her 50m freestyle, the purchase of our new house, Amy’s new job or the completion of my company’s Purdue training. All of those events were more than important enough to celebrate with that bottle, but we were too busy, or the moments were too fleeting, to really recognize them as special. So, we’re in the process of filling our wine cooler with enough bottles in order to never miss toasting the special events in our lives.

That being said, we’ve already picked next year’s bottle: a 1981 bottle of Jack Daniels given to us by Amy’s late grandfather.

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(from Don Z. of Florida)

My wife made five home videos of her doing various things, like talking about the kids, while cleaning wine glasses, talking about the "issues" of her women's tennis league while holding a glass of wine, etc.   Each video was sent by email with the subject as "O", the next one "T", then "B".........ending with the "N" video.  

Nobody had a clue and was driving people nuts trying to figure out what this was all about.    Then she sent the final one exlaiming OTBN!     I have to tell you that our friends were so pumped up!  We had 15 people and quite the range of wines.   It was a fantastic evening!!   We had awards for Best Wine, Worst Wine and Best Story . The wines ranges from absolutely wonderful to dead! 

Needless to say, the stories ranged from bragging to lying......but as you can see in my wife's thank you email photo, the winner of the night was a very fine 1985 Lancers Rose that her parents dragged out of the closet just for our special friends!   Opus can't hold a candle to Lancers!   The rage is on with our friends for 2010 OTBN!

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(from Peter C.)

I heard the interview [Dorothy and John] did on NPR last week and thought that it would be fun to celebrate OTBN on this, the 10th anniversary of the first event.

The bottle we opened was not particularly noteworthy.  In fact, the bottle of Cabernet we drank qualified for the event not because it was special but because it was unopened.

But the two things that made the event extra special were the place in which we celebrated and the friends we celebrated with.

The place was Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  Let me briefly describe the setting:  a sunny afternoon, the Colorado river racing by, resting our weary muscles in the campground, reminiscing about the indescribably beautiful day-long hike to the bottom of the Canyon, with a glass (actually a paper cup) of Cabernet in our hands.  This is a very special place and worthy of the occasion.

There were five of us in the group.  We are veteran Grand Canyon hikers and all share a love of the outdoors, a love of hiking and a love of each other’s company – truly a special group.

The bottle of wine and the reason for bringing it were a surprise to the rest of my group.  In fact, we were about two thirds of the way down to the bottom of the Canyon and feeling a little weary and sore.  We had stopped to rest for several minutes and I decided the group needed a little extra motivation.  So I asked whether anyone knew what the letters “OTBN” stood for.  No one did so I told them the story and let them know that I had a bottle of wine in my backpack in order to celebrate the occasion appropriately.

Needless to say the group made it to the bottom just fine and the wine tasted even better in that setting and with that group of friends.  It was well worth hauling the full bottle to the bottom of the Canyon and the empty bottle back up again.

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(from Julia G., March 9, 2009)

My open that bottle night is tonight. we are opening that bottle with good friends to toast President Barack Obama's opening up federal funding for stem cell research. My daughter has type 1 diabetes and this could mean a lifetime for her.

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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.