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OTBN 2026 – What a night!
Open That Bottle Night (OTBN for short) is one of my favorite wine holidays of the year – possibly simply the favorite.
The event, always taking place on the last Saturday in February, was created by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, writers of the Wall Street Journal wine column, 27 years ago. The purpose of the event or a holiday, if you will, is simple. Every wine lover has a special bottle waiting for a special moment. Let’s declare that special moment has arrived, and let’s open that special bottle to enjoy it now – nobody knows what’s ahead in life, so we should enjoy things while we can.
As I said, this is possibly my favorite wine holiday, I always make an effort to participate, and a few times even wrote about them (here are posts from 2016, 2019, 2020, 2023, and 2025). Whether I’m celebrating with friends or just with my wife, I always make an effort to make that day wine-special – I believe I have never been disappointed so far, judging by “what a night!” being a favorite descriptor.
OTBN 2026 was no exception. Typically, my OTBN experience starts with self-inflicted drama – what to open???? I have more than a few bottles worthy of a “special” designation, and it is always hard (very hard!) to decide which one or two should be called special in a given year. In 2026, somehow I managed to solve this conundrum somewhat easily – the decision just materialized on its own as I was mindlessly moving wine cabinet shelves in and out.
Lopez de Heredia needs no introduction to wine lovers. Way, way back, Lopez de Heredia Blanco was my first foray into white Rioja wines, and I have been a devoted follower ever since. Fiction by Field Recordings was the first wine that led to the discovery of the Field Recordings wines 17+ years ago, and it has been a perennial staple ever since. I can’t say what led to the decision on the 33-year-old white Rioja and 13-year-old California red blend, but this became one of the most memorable wine experiences ever.
Let’s talk about 1993 Lopez de Heredia Viña Tondonia Blanco Rioja (12.5% ABV). I have to start by saying that I’m not a fan of oxidative white wines. When I mentioned on Twitter that I plan to open this bottle for the OTBN, some comments expressed excitement about oxidative and nutty notes, which I was supposed to find, similar to what you would find in a glass of Jerez. And so I was expecting to find that, and was wondering if I would be able to like that wine. And then there were literally none! Nothing oxidative on the nose, mostly minerality and whitestone fruit. And then a beautiful, complex, powerful structure on the palate, somewhat along the lines of a good Roussanne, still with perfect acidity and freshness. Oxidative notes were lurking in the background, showing up and instantly dissipating a few times, but those were only tiny glimpses, not taking anything away from the wine. An absolutely delightful experience, a 33-year-old white Rioja possibly at its peak (but I wouldn’t dare to insist).
And then there was 2013 Fiction by Field Recordings Paso Robles (13.5% ABV, 31% Zinfandel, 26% Tempranillo, 15% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 8% Touriga Nacional). This was my only bottle with an original label, which I really loved and much prefer to the current ones. There is nothing wrong with the current label, only that the original one, with a flock of birds, was conveying the message of bottled poetry a lot better – or rather music, as I wrote in my first post about this wine, Music, Recorded in the Vineyard.
I also loved the back label. As this might be the last time I look at such a label (the current ones don’t carry any of the text), I would allow myself to cite the text written on that back label:
“It’s 6 A.M. and if I don’t find them soon, they’ll be gone. The back of my pickup stocked with trash bags, I head out. If I was looking at the road, I would notice the truck’s path change from frontage road, to side road, to no road. I would notice addresses begin to dwindle and buildings become fields. But I’m not looking at the road. I’m looking at the sky, searching for the living static that gathers above the grapes when they are perfectly ripe. When the black cloud finally appears, I weave through the vineyard, throw her in park, stuff my pockets with plastic and dance my way through a mess of moving wings and beaks. Hours later, bugs filled with ripe fruit, bulge from the bed of my pickup and the birds have disappeared. Tomorrow, I will search again.”
Now, let’s talk about the wine. Screwtop. 13 years old California Paso Robles blend. Stored at somewhat consistent conditions, away from direct sunlight and vibration, but not in the cellar or a wine cooler. Priced at not more than $20 originally (directly from the winery). And yet, one of the very best wines I have ever experienced. A truly memorable one.
I poured the wine in the glass, smelled it, and couldn’t put the glass down. The time slowed down. Sounds practically disappeared. The aroma was magical. And the wine in my mouth was too.
Dreams, smiles, baby laughter, endless meadows, fresh mountain forest air. I know, it sounds like a brain dump, but I don’t want even to try to describe this wine in technical terms – raspberries or blueberries are not important here, what’s important is how the wine makes you feel. Refined, elegant, layered palate, flavors are transitioning and interplaying in total harmony, each sip asking for the next. Am I exaggerating? I don’t know, and it is up to you to believe me or not. But the wine was absolutely stunning and memorable. That I’m completely sure about.
Here you are, my friends. An OTBN experience that will not be easy to beat.
Two amazing wines, an amazing experience, great memories.
I don’t know if I will be able to do better next year, but this is the beauty of wine – the mystery in the bottle.
Until the next time – cheers!
Open That Bottle Night OTBN 2025 – What a Night!
What a Night! The end.
If I say “what a night”, can this serve as a sufficient wine descriptor?
Okay, of course not, but what a night it was.
As a wine lover, I really treasure Open That Bottle Night, or OTBN for short, taking place on the last Saturday in February. OTBN was created by the Wall Street Journal wine writers, Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, back in 1999, to encourage wine lovers around the world to open that long-stashed special bottle that might be long gone while waiting for a special enough day to be opened.
Now, if I describe the experience as “agonizing”, does that portray a happy vibe? I might be unique in my self-directed masochism, but “agonizing” is the best way to describe the days leading up to the OTBN sacred night. Agreeing with oneself on wines worthy to be opened for OTBN can’t be described any other way, as I endlessly circle around the bottles located all over the house (an extra challenge of not having a dedicated wine cellar).
This year’s OTBN accidentally worked better than it could’ve been. We had been trying to arrange a dinner with friends for a while, and February 22nd was not my preferred date as it was my only night home in between two weeklong business trips. But as we tried to push it out to a later date, we came to a realization that it is either now, or it will be pushed far away, and we already had been talking about this get together for about half a year. I was responsible for the wine, and the other two couples for the food. As I started thinking about wines I should bring, it downed on me – ohh, this is the last Saturday of February, which means … OTBN!
Selecting the wines instantly got a lot more interesting and a lot more challenging at the same time. Now I need to bring not just wines, but the wines worthy of OTBN, the wines special for whatever reason, as a bare minimum special at least to me.
Celebrating OTBN in the group has a great advantage – I don’t need to decide what this one special bottle is – we can cover the full proper “wine dinner range” – bubbles, white, red, dessert. This is exactly what I did – and here are the wines I selected, with all the notes and impressions attached.
Bubbles – my selection is typically very limited at home, I have maybe 12 to 15 bottles of sparkling wines on hand, so deciding what is “special enough” is not easy – and the whole idea of OTBN is to work with your own cellar, so I had to really find that bottle inside. In the morning, I pulled out a shelf with sparkling wines from the fridge, and my inner voice said “how about this one”. Grabbed the bottle of 2008 Champagne Philippe Fourrier Brut Cuvée Millesime (12% ABV, I think I got it through WTSO a while back), and while checking the back label, I realized that this was also a vintage champagne, a 2008 – even better! Now the bottle has become a lot more worthwhile to open at OTBN.
What a joy this wine was. Perfectly substantial without going overboard – toasted bread, apples, yeast, fresh and full of energy – an absolute “wow” of the champagne experience, the wine that was very easy to like instead of looking for ways to convince oneself that you like it. Extra bonus – everyone loved the wine, which is never given in the group, especially when it comes to bubbles.
Next, 2016 Salabka La Coquine Chardonnay Czech Republic (12.5% ABV).
This wine was probably the most special in the group. This wine was associated with memories. I brought a few bottles of this same wine back from the Czech Republic in 2017, after tasting the wine at a dinner at Salabka city winery, located and growing their grapes within Prague city proper. This was my last bottle from that trip, and I already pulled it out of the fridge on multiple occasions, and put it back every time deciding “not today”. This time I decided that it was actually the time to pull that cork – but I didn’t have much hope for this 9 years old Chardonnay.
Oh my… what a wow wine it was. Perfectly intact cork with a few crystals. No age showing in the color, still light golden. And the nose and the palate showing apples, pears and vanilla, woven over a firm citrus core. Bristling acidity doesn’t get in the way of enjoying wine. Considering how fresh the wine was, I’m sure this wine had another 20 years of life ahead of it – and now I have a perfect reason, even a strong need to visit Prague again.
Next, time for reds.
In retrospect, the selection of reds was very interesting, I don’t think I would’ve done it better even if I tried. A 2005 Bordeaux and 2012 Washington estate red – sounds reasonably far apart, right? And yet somehow, the wines literally were singing in unison, just imagine 2012 red having a bit of a deeper voice.
Maybe this was due to very similar grape blends – both wines were blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petite Verdot, but the Washington red was simply a continuation of the French Bordeaux.
The 2005 Domaine De l’Île Margaux Cuvée Mer de Garonne Grand Vin Bordeaux Superieur (13.5% ABV, 33% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Petite Verdot)
comes from a unique place, a small island in the middle of the Gironde River, overlooking the great estates of Margaux. The wine opened up as a classic, beautiful Bordeaux, with cassis and eucalyptus on the bright nose, and more of the same on the palate. Perfectly fresh, beautiful layers of fruit, firm structure, impeccable balance. The 20 years of age were unnoticeable. The wine didn’t need decanting, but opened up beautifully in the glass.
The 2012 Figgins Estate Red Wine Walla Walla Valley (14.6% ABV, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, Merlot) was my only bottle which I got as a present some years back. Similar to Salabka Chardonnay, this wine was pulled out of the fridge on a number of occasions, only to be put back in again. Finally, this was the day. On the nose, it was very similar to the Bordeaux, only a bit more restrained. On the palate, it had the same cassis and eucalyptus, but the appearance was a bit “fattier” – more pronounced berries, juicier layers, a bit darker notes but still perfectly balanced and perfectly delicious.
And then the was time for dessert. Nothing makes me more ecstatic than an opportunity to open a bottle of a dessert wine. During most of the dinners, even when you plan to open the dessert wine, everyone starts complaining about how they don’t want to drink anything else, and the desire not to waste a whole bottle for just a few sips prevails. But this is OTBN, not just some regular wine dinner, so everyone simply has to go with the program.
I don’t know exactly how I got into possession of this 2018 Mazza Vineyards Vidal Blanc Ice Wine Lake Erie Pennsylvania (11.5% ABV, Harvest dates January 11 and 21, 2019) bottle – I guess someone just brought it as a present.
Boy, was this wine just an amazing finish for the evening… stunningly delicious, with ripe apricot on the nose, and ripe, juicy, succulent apricots on the palate enveloped in a perfect amount of acidity. This was the wine of impeccable balance, the balance of sweetness and acidity that makes or breaks dessert wines. This one was superb – we almost had to fight for who would get to finish a bottle – a pure joy to an oenophile’s heart.
I also have to mention another special treat we had for dessert – small pastries that were popular back in Belarus growing up there, called Bouchée. These were specifically made as per the original Russian recipe and were absolutely sublime.
Another OTBN just became a history, a memorable memento. Luck or not, but these were 5 excellent, memorable wines – and a great company. Let’s raise the glass to the joy the wine is able to bring. Cheers to memorable nights!
Frustration of the Oenophile – Choosing Wine
First-world problems, I know. Nevertheless, let’s talk about them.
I guess we, oenophiles, are tender creatures. Doesn’t take much to get us frustrated. Wine not tasting the way we expect; not enjoying critic’s choice 100-points wine; close friends not sharing your excitement about the wine in the glass. We can go on and on about these little insignificant things, each one a source of the full-blown frustration. Oenophile’s frustration looks different every day. And mine right now might be the biggest one of all (remember – taste is subjective, so are the feelings) – inability to choose the wine.
Assuming I will be able to finish this post today, tomorrow we are celebrating Valentine’s Day – and what says “I love you” better than a luscious, voluptuous, sexy, and seductive bottle of wine? Forget flowers, flowers don’t stand a chance against such a bottle of wine. But what wine will be luscious, voluptuous, sexy, and seductive? The need to choose that wine properly becomes the cause of the ultimate frustration. But that’s not all, because merely in a week we have to deal with OTBN – Open That Bottle Night – and this is the ultimate “oenophile frustration” cause, as now we need to decide what bottle we kept not opening waiting for a special moment which might either never arrive or already be in the past?
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Trying to select the right bottle of wine for the occasion, you have only a few minutes to agree with yourself on the proper bottle. If you will not arrive at the decision within those few minutes, the next 2, 3, 4 days will be miserable. You are going to pull a bottle, look at it, think about it for a moment, sigh, and put it back. Then repeat the process over and over again, pretty much until you force yourself to feel that you got the right bottle. Possibly to change your mind again in a few hours, or even 20 minutes before the bottle needs to be opened. If you are an oenophile, and you are not going through this pitiful “decision paralysis”, I envy you and congratulate you. And for the rest of us – I share your pain.
So what wine should you select for Valentine’s Day? I already told you – it should be luscious, voluptuous, sexy, and seductive – or not. Of course, there is a big dependency on the food, but don’t try to achieve a perfect match – it’s okay to enjoy your food and wine independently. I have to say that I’m not a big fan of still Rosé wines for Valentine’s Day – yes, it matches the pink color of all the all V-day paraphernalia – but it might not deliver the pleasure you are looking for. I also would suggest avoiding “thought-provoking” wines – rare grapes, natural wines, skin-contact wines, wines from the forgotten corners of the Earth. On a normal day, I’m the first one to ask for an obscure wine, but for Valentine’s Day, wine should give you pleasure, elevate your mood, it should be easy to understand. If upon the first sip you will not say “ahh, this is good”, you’ve chosen the wrong wine – put the cork back and go fetch another bottle.
I love to have bubbles for Valentine’s Day – of course, nothing can beat the classic Champagne (and it perfectly can be pink), but you can’t go wrong with Cremants, Franciacorta, Trento DOC, Cava, and all other méthode champenoise wines. If you like white wines, Chardonnay is your best choice of white V-day wine, pretty much from anywhere in the world, as long as it is not a lifeless purposefully unoaked rendition.
And then, of course, the red. Ideally, the red should have an age on it, to truly deliver all that pleasure upon a first sip. Amarone, Brunello (I would avoid Barolo unless you perfectly know what you are doing), Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux/Cabernet blends, Super-Tuscans, Spanish Grenache, Rioja from a good producer, Syrah and Zinfandel. I’m not trying to make other wines feel bad, but for Valentine’s Day, this is what I would pick from.
Here is actually what I picked – Champagne and Syrah from California – and I will tell you all about it later on.
If you thought selecting wine for Valentine’s Day was frustrating, it is nothing in comparison with selecting the wine for OTBN.
OTBN (Open That Bottle Night) was invented in 1999 by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, writers behind the Wall Street Journal’s wine column at that time. The purpose of the OTBN, which is always celebrated on the last Saturday in February, is to encourage wine lovers around the world to open that special, stashed far away bottle. We all have those bottles that can be categorized as “not today”. These wines typically exist in single quantities in our cellars and always have a memory attached to them.
This is what makes the selection process very difficult – to open or not to open? I have only one such bottle. What if I open it too early – I will never know how amazing it could become over the next 10 years? Once I open that bottle which was gifted by a dear friend, brought back from the amazing trip, acquired in the moment splurge, will my memories be lost forever? Should I just hold on to that bottle instead? Will I open this wine in the right company? Will people truly appreciate the sacrifice I’m making?
Frustrated, frustrated oenophile. It is hard to make wine decisions.
I hope you got my point. And I hope I helped you, at least a tiny bit, to select a proper bottle of wine, at least for Valentine’s Day. And please don’t ignore the OTBN – the right time to open a special bottle of wine is now – you never know, tomorrow the wine might be gone, or you might be gone. Truly, live in the wine moment – at least on the last Saturday in February.
Do you have frustrated oenophile moments of your own? Please share! And I wish you a happy, quick, and not-frustrating-at-all wine selection process, for all the special moments to come. Cheers!
OTBN Conundrum
OTBN, short for Open That Bottle Night, is my favorite wine holiday. Nowadays, there are lots and lots of wine holidays, usually associated with a particular grape – International Chardonnay Day, International Cabernet Day, Beaujolais Nouveau celebration, and so on. The majority of such wine holidays encourage you to open a bottle of wine made from a particular grape, whether there is a story behind the bottle or not. You can take these grape holidays with all seriousness and meticulously prepare and select the right bottle, or you can just grab any random bottle you will see in the store – or skip the grape holiday altogether if you don’t feel like drinking Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay on that particular day.
OTBN is different. OTBN was invented for people who take their wine seriously. Or maybe rather those who take their wine too seriously. Over the years, we accumulate wine bottles that are deemed special; brought home from the winery you visited in France; got this bottle after an amazing tasting event; a bottle from an amazing family vacation many years ago; a bottle given to you by a dear friend. We can continue on and on, but you got the point.
Many of those special bottles in your collection would have some similar traits: they exist in the quantity of 1 and they are too special to be opened at random. Those special single bottles stay put in your cellar, waiting for the special company, special circumstances, special moment, special friend’s visit to be opened and enjoyed. More often than not, they keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting, because that special moment keeps not happening. And then, when it finally arrives, you might open that special bottle you preserved with the best care in the world, only to find that the content can solicit the memory but can’t bring you joy anymore because the wine in the bottle simply turned past prime. And it also kind of ruins the moment. This is why OTBN was invented, and this is what makes it such a great holiday for all the winos out there.
My personal conundrum draws exactly along the lines I just described. I have a lot of single bottles (actually, an absolute majority of my wines in single bottles – I practically never buy any wine by the case), and as such making a decision about a “special” bottle of wine for an event or a holiday, never mind the hallmark of them all, OTBN, a long and tedious process. “Is this bottle good enough? Okay, but I only have one. What if I will open it now and would never know how great it could’ve been? What do I do? What do I do?”
Same as the last year, I had to celebrate OTBN early this year due to the business trip spanning over the intended OTBN last Saturday of the month, February 25th. My wife doesn’t drink much wine nowadays, so I had to count primarily on myself. I had no good ideas coming to my head, there were no special bottles of wine I was ready to sacrifice. Looking at one of the wine fridges, I noticed the bottle of Jean Bourdy from Jura.
I don’t take Jura wines lightly, they are very hard to procure in the US. And then Jean Bourdy is a legend in itself – I better have a damn good reason to open such a special bottle. Then I thought that I already had some Jean Boardy in the past – maybe I would find some notes in the blog? I entered Jean Bourdy in the search box, and sure enough, this post came up. I tasted this wine in 2011 when I attended a Natural Wines seminar at PJ Wine store in New York – my first, a truly memorable encounter with natural (low intervention) wines as a category. I tasted this exact wine, 2006 Jean Bourdy Cotes Du Jura Rouge (fun fact: 2006 was the first vintage of Biodynamic wine production at Caves Jean Bourdy). I really liked the wine then, and my note said “It appears that wines of Jean Bourdy are known to age very well (note to self)”. As soon I saw this “note to self”, I instantly put that single bottle of Jean Bourdy back, as 17 years is most likely not an age for it.
In the same post, I noticed another wine that happened to be next to Jean Bourdy bottle on the same shelf – 2007 Le Pavillon de Saint Jacques Lalande de Pomerol. I pulled this bottle many times from the fridge before, always remembering that this was a natural wine, but again, no moment felt special enough. Then I read my note from 2011, which was clearly less than favorable. Here it is in its entirety:
“Very interesting. Smells like dirt, pure dirt after the rain. Very vegetative, no fruit on the palate, just pure dirt again. Almost no acidity. This wine was fermented in concrete tanks, aged for 18 months. It is “certified organic” and made with 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc – classic Pomerol wine. I would love to taste it in 10-15 years – I think it will greatly evolve, but it is not easy to say ” I like it” now”.
This “note to self” clearly stated that the wine was not good in 2011, but I should give it another try in 10-15 years. I was pretty much in the middle of that suggested term – 12 years after the original tasting, so opening that bottle all of a sudden became a perfect thing to do.
Cork came out easily, showing a good amount of crystals on the bottom, but otherwise perfectly fresh. The first sip instantly put my inner wine geek into a nirvana state. Barnyard. Pure, beautiful barnyard. If you belong to the group which screams “brett” at the first whiff of the barnyard smell on the wine, I’m sorry but we can’t be friends. Yes, there are limits to everything, but the reasonable amount (don’t ask me to quantify, everyone has to define their own “reasonable amount”) enhances the wine pleasure for me. I typically find barnyard associated with Syrah wines – possibly, this was my first Bordeaux with the barnyard aroma – but the barnyard aromas were followed by the classic, concentrated cassis. Layered, concentrated, softly rolling harmonious wine with perfect, firm structure and clean acidity. Beautiful, classic Bordeaux. This was truly an OTBN-worthy pure pleasure experience (by the way, my wife also loved the wine very much).
Here you go – my typical wine selection conundrum, happily resolved to make another memorable night. And as a bonus, the expectation of improvement of the wine with age fully came through (patting myself on the back).
The official OTBN night is almost here. You still have time to select the bottle or 5, maybe get some friends together and make some wonderful wine memories. If you want to celebrate only one wine holiday a year, make it OTBN – don’t risk the wine not being there for you, or you not being there for the wine.
And please share your OTBN stories – I would love to hear them.
Wednesday Meritage #162
Meritage Time!
Here is your [extremely irregular] update on the interesting wine (and food) happenings that recently grabbed my attention. Let’s start with some local updates first.
New stories of Passion and Pinot
Last week I published a new interview in the Stories of Passion and Pinot series – this time with David Adelsheim, one of the early pioneers of the Oregon Pinot revolution. This is one of the very best interviews in the series and will be well worth a few minutes of your time – if you will crave a glass of Pinot after reading it, I’m not responsible for it. There are 15 interviews plus multiple updates in the series, and more interviews and updates are up and coming in the series – my conversations with Erik Kramer of WillaKenzie and Bill Sanchez of Potter’s Vineyard will be published soon.
Yelp 100 Top Restaurants
Yes, I’m mostly writing about wine in this blog, but I love food and I’m actually a “yelper”, both as a user of and as a contributor to the popular Yelp website. I rely on Yelp’s recommendations when I travel, and I go out of my way to write a review after visiting a restaurant (I rarely review other businesses or attractions). Yelp recently released a list of the 100 most popular restaurants around the US – it is a fun reading to see what the others like, so you might want to spend a few minutes browsing through. Who knows, maybe you will see your favorite eatery among the top 5…
This Day In Wine History
I love data. It doesn’t have to be anything useful. Just data, information, facts – especially if it concerns subjects that are near and dear to my heart – like wine. As a data collector, do you want to know what happened in the history of wine on a specific day of the month – let’s say, February 1st? Now you can, with the help of the website called This Day in Wine History. For example, I just learned what happened on February 1st. According to the website, “February 1, 1141: On this day, the foundation of Barone Ricasoli, Italy, was laid. The Tuscan winery is the oldest one still in business in Italy”. Or here is another February 1st event: “February 1, 1801: On this day, John June Lewis, Sr was born. He is known as the first African-American winemaker in the United States”. The information on the website is not limited to the singular date events – you can find in-depth articles about the history of the wine decanters or all you wanted to know about widow Clicquot, one of the key figures in the history of Champagne. Check it out, I have a suspicion that you might find it useful and entertaining.
OTBN – Open That Bottle Night
It is never too early to talk about one of my favorite wine holidays – Open That Bottle Night, or OTBN for short. This year, OTBN, which is celebrated on the last Saturday in February, will fall on February 25th. I wrote about OTBN numerous times so if you are not familiar with the concept please click on the link. For the rest of us, the game is on, and it is not too early to start thinking about those special bottle(s) that are waiting and begging to be opened. Yep, start looking in that cellar… If you are anything like me, that special bottle decision will not come with ease…
That’s all I have for you for today. The glass is empty, but the refill is on the way. Cheers!
Open That Bottle Night Eve, 2022
And just like that, Open That Bottle Night 2022 is upon us.
Considering the current state of the world, I’m really not in the mood to write about wine when people are dying because of some egomaniacal fucking moron… but based on my inability to do much anything about it, let’s still talk about Open That Bottle Night.
The Open That Bottle Night, or OTBN for short, created by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, Wall Street Journal wine writers back in 1999, is always celebrated on the last Saturday in February. OTBN was created to help people to part with that special bottle while it still might taste great. Over the years, it became literally a holiday celebrated all around the world, with people reporting on all the amazing wines, and most importantly, amazing experiences of getting together with friends (here are my reports from the last 3 years – 2019, 2020, and 2021, plus many special reports from 2016).
This year, we had been invited to celebrate a birthday of a dear friend on that exact Saturday of the OTBN, so I have no options but to celebrate the night before or after, or maybe even both (this friend doesn’t care about wine, so combining the birthday celebration with OTBN is not an option). Thus I’m sitting here the night before the OTBN, sipping my OTBN wine and enjoying every little drop of it.
Deciding on the wine worthy of OTBN is always incredibly hard. I love aging wine, so I have a good selection, but it doesn’t mean that deciding on the bottle is easy. There are bottles that I determined to share with friends (actually, all of them, but I have to make exceptions, especially considering the lockdown life of the past 2 years). There are bottles which I don’t want to open too early. There are bottles I’m still not ready to part with. I’m telling you, people – it is difficult.
I don’t have any wine record-keeping system. I have a loose idea of the bottles I have, but I’m always ready to be surprised. Tonight, I opened one of the wine fridges, and pulled out the bottle which I had completely forgotten about – and as a bonus, this bottle also comes with a story.
Let me tell you the story first. Take a look at the label – you can see that it looks crooked and dinted. So the rips in the label are from the shelves in my wine fridge, and they are not so interesting. But otherwise, the appearance of this label has a reason. Alban wines are allocated and are hard to get. When I got my allocation some time back, I only wanted to take 2 bottles, so the friend asked if she can have the rest. She filled up the form in her name, got the full allocation, and then shipped my two bottles back to me – a bottle of Patrina Syrah and this bottle of Roussanne. For some mysterious reason, she decided to reuse the inflatable packaging which is sometimes used to ship the wine instead of cardboard or styrofoam. The problem with that air-pumped enclosure is that it is not really reusable and not that reliable. When I got the box, the red liquid was slowly sipping through – you can imagine the fate of Patrina… At least the bottle of Roussanne was intact, with the exception of the label…
Pulling this bottle out from the bottom shelf was a moment of happiness. I love Roussanne, one of my favorite white grape varieties, and for some reason, I had been really craving Roussanne lately. So seeing this bottle which I completely forgot about was a moment of joy – this was IT. A perfect bottle for OTBN.
What can I tell you about this 2013 Alban Roussanne Edna Valley outside of the fact that it offers immense pleasure? We can start with a beautiful golden color. The nose of gunflint and honey at such intensity that you simply don’t want to put the glass down. Sniff, swirl, sniff, swirl, ahh. Gunflint, honey, salinity, and sapidity on the palate. This wine is fresh. This wine is alive, with a cut-through acidity on the long, long finish. This wine is viscous, roll-off-your-tongue goodness – after taking a sip, my wife said “ooh, this wine is fat!”. This wine is perfectly OTBN worthy. Not only that – this wine is perfectly Top 10 wines worthy.
So here is my OTBN story. Even if you don’t feel like celebrating, life is now. It is happening, and no moment will repeat itself. Pull that special bottle. Open that bottle – the special moment has arrived, it is now. Cheers, my friends.
Wednesday’s Meritage #159
Meritage Time!
January is almost over, and as many people talked about “dry January”, it was reasonably dry – not in terms of wines, but in terms of wine events. However, February promises to compensate abundantly and offers lots to look forward to.
Let’s start with the grape holidays. Next Tuesday, February 1st, is International Furmint Day. Furmint is one of the most famous Hungarian grapes, best known as the grape behind Tokaji, heavenly nectar. Furmint also can be vinified dry, although much harder to find compared to Tokaji. Either way, you have a holiday to celebrate. Two weeks later, on February 16th, we will celebrate one of my favorite grapes – Syrah, via International Syrah Day. Syrah should be much easier to find, so no excuses. There is also Global Drink Wine Day on February 18th, but for someone who drinks the wine every day, that is not something I can particularly celebrate.
Continuing the theme of celebrations, let’s talk about celebrating not a particular grape, but the whole wine region. Monday, February 7th, will mark the beginning of the New Zealand Wine Week. Two webinars will be offered – one focused on the New Zealand wines on the global wine scene, and the second one diving deep into the world of New Zealand Pinot Noir.
To complete the subject of celebration, the last one for today is the main wine holiday of the year – Open That Botte Night, or OTBN for short. The holiday was created 22 years ago by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, writers of the Wall Street Journal’s Tastings column. The goal of the holiday is to help people to happily part with their prized bottles, taste those wines themselves, and share them with friends, hopefully while both wines and people are in their prime. OTBN is always celebrated on the last Saturday in February, which will be February 26th this year. It is time for you to already start thinking about those special bottles you would want to open.
The next event I want to bring to your attention is Oregon Wine Symposium. While this is definitely a technical event, focused on the winegrowers, winemakers, and winery owners, the event offers excellent educational content for any wine lover. This year’s event will consist of two parts. Virtual part with all the educational content will take place February 15-17, and then the Oregon Wine Symposium Live portion will follow on March 8-9. Virtual sessions will cover in-depth Oregon wine industry, looking into the overall state of the industry, the direct-to-consumer market, the management of the supply chain, and lots more. Again, this is a technical event, offering lots to learn for those who want to learn.
Last but not least will be the first trade tasting I plan to attend in person this year – the Tre Bicchieri 2022, taking place on Friday, February 25th. This event is a culmination point of the Gambero Rosso wine publication, offering an opportunity to taste the best of the best Italian wines selected during the prior year, those awarded three glasses rating by the publication. Tre Bicchiery is one of my favorite tastings of the year, usually full of great discoveries – here is the retrospective of the events I attended in the past. Considering that there was no Tre Bicchiery event in 2021, I can only hope that we will see some great wines at the event, and I will actually be able to plan my attendance properly to taste the most coveted wines, instead of finding a table with only empty bottles, as already happened at my first Tre Bicchieri event, and the empty bottles at the table were the legendary Masseto. The event will travel around the USA, with the stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, and Houston, so hopefully, you will get your chance to attend.
That’s all I have for you for today. The glass is empty, but the refill is on the way. Cheers!
Open That Bottle Night 2021 – What A Night!
Traditions, traditions, traditions.
Traditions need wine. Wine needs traditions. Makes sense? If not, express your disdain with a flaming comment. But if you are an oenophile (wine aficionado, wine snob, wine geek, …), you understand and can easily relate.
Open That Bottle Night, or OTBN for short, is one of the shortest living traditions of the wine world, where thousand years might be a good measure for some – OTBN was first celebrated in 1999 when it was created by the wine couple – Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, wine writers behind the “Tastings” column in Wall Street Journal. The OTBN was created to help wine lovers part with the special wine bottles which might otherwise become a waste.
There are two parts to any wine tradition – the first is a special wine itself, always carefully selected to match the tradition, and the second is sharing – sharing of that bottle with the world. Not with the whole world at once, but with the friends.
Let’s talk about finding and sharing.
Finding a proper bottle is never easy – and it might be even worse for the holiday such as OTBN, which was created specifically to help us part with the special bottle, the bottle which has a special meaning for us – no matter why and how, but special in whatever way. Sharing is typically not a problem – unless it is 2021 and the world is still mostly in lockdown – and that includes all of one’s wine friends.
I was lucky for the past many years to have wonderful celebrations of the OTBN with the friends, sharing the most amazing wine experiences (here is the first-hand account for 2017, 2019, and 2020). The only possible way to share OTBN 2021 was the one using for the majority of the gatherings during 2020 and 2021 – the virtual one. I’m not complaining – I’m grateful that at least we have the technology with allows us to spend time with each other face to face, no matter how physically distant we are. So sharing portion was rather easy, and now let’s talk about finding.
Finding is not even the right word. Finding is easy – but selecting is not. OTBN asks for that special bottle. Deciding on what makes one bottle more special than the other, when your cellar is full of unique bottles all present in the quantity of 1 (one), is the hard part. After some amount of deliberations, which included pulling numerous wine fridge shelves back and forth, back and forth, I settled on these four bottles:
Let me explain my selection logic so you will see why it is such a daunting process for me.
First, the white wine, as I’m a big proponent of the balanced diet. 2007 François Cazin Le Petit Chambord Cour-Cheverny AOC might be called my unicorn wine, at least when it comes to whites. The first time I tried a different vintage of this exact wine when it was 10 years old and this wine became one of the brightest memories for me – the beauty and interplay of bright fruit, honey, and acidity were simply unforgettable. When young, this wine from the Loire, made out of the rare grape called Romorantin, is a single note acidic. With age, it develops into an absolute beauty. When I opened the bottle of this wine back in 2015, the wine was superb. When I brought it to Jim’s house for the OTBN 2019, 4 years later, it was “interesting” but absolutely not exciting. I was hoping for redemption, so this was an easy choice.
My next selection was 2008 Tardieu-Laurent Hermitage AOC. When I see Hermitage written on the label, you can literally hear me sigh. Hermitage to me is synonymous with the Syrah, and I love classic Syrah. And so does my wife – Syrah is her favorite grape. I have very few Hermitage wines in my cellar – and this one was calling my name for a long time (meaning: it was pulled off the shelf and placed back many times). Considering that 2008 had a rainy growing season and the vintage has low ratings (WS86, for example) and “Drink now” recommendation, this was an easy decision – no point in waiting any longer.
How many unicorns can one have? Well, having a unicorn would be nice, but I guess I’m talking about chasing them. So how many unicorns can one chase? Clearly, it seems that I’m chasing many. Good Amarone is the wine I’m always chasing. Giuseppe Quintarelly Amarone is more of an ephemeral dream for me, considering the price and availability – and it is definitely one of those unicorns I’m talking about. With 2004 Zýmē Kairos Veneto IGT, I’m getting as close to that unicorn as I can. This wine is produced by Celestino Gaspari, the winemaker for Giuseppe Quintarelli. As the label says “Produced from 15 varietals of grapes of Verona, it is a reflection and interpretation of our soil and the culture of its terroir”. In case you are curious, the 15 grapes are Garganega, Trebbiano Toscano, SauvignonBlanc, Chardonnay, Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, CabernetSauvignon, CabernetFranc, Merlot, Syraz, Teroldego, Croatina, Oseleta, Sangiovese, and Marzemino. This was my last bottle, and I scanned the pages of this very blog for a good 20 minutes last night as I couldn’t believe that I could’ve never written about this wine before – apparently, I have not. Anyway, I was afraid that it might be the time for this wine, thus it was added to the OTBN group. By the way, another interesting tidbit about this wine is that the name “Kairos” means “timely”, “appropriate”, and “the perfect moment”.
Every good plan A needs plan B, right? The backup. Have you ever went to a friend’s house with a bottle of wine, while another bottle stayed in your car just in case the first one would be corked? Yep, that’s the plan B we are talking about. 2004 Vaucher Pere et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin was my plan B. I don’t have a lot of Burgundies, so opening one is always a special moment. 2004 vintage was so so, with WS88 rating and “drink” recommendation, so this bottle was rightfully on the OTBN list, should the need and opportunity come.
Now you know all about selecting, and I want to say a few more words about sharing. Sharing wine is one of the best pleasures of drinking wine. The approving, understanding nod from the fellow wine lover after he or she is taking the sip from the bottle you brought really fills you up with joy. It might be even more satisfying than your own enjoyment of the same wine. Yet in today’s world, sharing the wine face to face is literally impossible, OTBN or not. To at least share the moment, I reached out to the technology which seemed to save the world from going mad – a virtual get-together over video. Zoom is my tool of choice, so after sending the invites to the group of bloggers, we got together at 7 pm on the OTBN Saturday.
We were not a big group – even in the virtual world, people are busy and have their own plans. But I’m really grateful to everyone who was able to spend that special Saturday time together – some for the whole 2 hours, some for 20-30 minutes, talking about wines, sharing life stories and experiences, and most importantly, having fun. You can scroll through the pictures below, I’m sure you will see some familiar faces.
So how was my OTBN? In other words, let me tell you more about the wines.
The miracle didn’t happen, and the white wine didn’t become suddenly magical. If I need to describe this 2007 François Cazin Le Petit Chambord Cour-Cheverny AOC in one word, the word would be “strange”. At some moments, it was oxidative and plump. In other moments, it was acidic. It never showed that amazing lemon and honey notes I was expecting. I still have one more bottle, but now I really need to forget it for as long as possible and see if the miracle will happen.
The Hermitage was … superb. First of all, opening it was a breeze – cork was perfectly intact, regular waiter’s corkscrew worked just fine. Drinking this 2008 Tardieu-Laurent Hermitage AOC was a great pleasure – a touch of pepper, a distant hint of a barnyard, round and delicious fruit. The wine was just right – perfectly balanced, round, and smooth. I don’t have a lot of experience with Hermitage, but this wine was clearly one of the best renditions of Syrah I had in a long time. “Elegant” would be the single word descriptor I would use.
The Kairos was the bottle I was concerned about the most. It could’ve been gone by now, especially considering such an eclectic blend of grapes. When I started opening this 2004 Zýmē Kairos Veneto IGT, first I decided to use the regular corkscrew, which worked perfectly fine for the Hermitage. Looking at the way the screw was going in, the cork seemed to be too soft, so I decided that it was the job for Ah-So – I’m glad this decision was not an afterthought I usually have after the cork is already broken in half – Ah-So worked perfectly well and the cork came out with no issues.
And the wine… The wine was magical. Dark fruit with a hint of dried fruit on the palate, perfectly firm and structured, powerful and elegant, with clean acidity and an impeccable balance. The wine was delicious on Saturday, and I also enjoyed that over the next two days. So now I regret not having any more bottles left – but I’m glad I had this special experience. Magical would be the word.
As two bottles of red had no issues whatsoever, the Burgundy was left aside and now will be waiting for its special moment to be opened and enjoyed.
And that, my friends, concludes my OTBN 2021 report. While the sharing was virtual, the experience and pleasure of the wine and the company were real, and it will stay in my memory as yet another great OTBN night. Hope you had fun too. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage #156
Meritage time!
Once again I’m starting with Open That Bottle Night. February 27th, rain, snow, or shine, will be the time to open that special bottle. If you are not familiar with Open That Bottle Night, please check the previous issue of Meritage or this post. I plan to have a virtual OTBN with friends – anyone who is interested in joining, please send me a message (email, Twitter, Insta – all work), and I will let you know how to connect. Now, I need to make up my own mind and decide what I’m going to open – easier said than done, believe me.
Next, in a bit of a “local news”, I would like to promote the series of posts which I had been running for a long time on this blog – the wine quizzes. These wine quizzes used to be a weekly endeavor until they became just a few a year and then stopped completely. I restarted the series about half a year ago, with the hope of posting a new quiz once every two weeks. I had a number of the wine quiz themes over the years, with one of my favorites asking the readers to identify the wine producer by the image of the top of the bottle – foil, cork, or wax – here is an example of such a quiz. But now I have a new twist on that theme, asking the readers to identify the producers by the fragment of the image of the label, which should be easier than doing it using the bottle tops. Here is an example of such a new quiz. So all I want to do is to encourage all of you who are reading this right now to give it a try – you have nothing to lose!
And now, for the real, global wine news, how about some global wines, or maybe rather “Wines of the World”? It appears that Penfolds, one of the most iconic Australian wine producers (Grange, anyone?), just unveiled the line of California wines. The wines are made from the grapes coming from the vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, and Paso Robles. Continuing Penfolds naming tradition, the wines are identified by the bin numbers, starting from Bin 600 Cabernet-Shiraz, priced at $50, and going to the flagship Quantum Bin 98 Cabernet Sauvignon at $700 per bottle. The top two wines, Quantum Bin 98 and Bin 149 have some of the Australian wine as part of the blend, hence the “Wine of the World” moniker. For more details, you can read the whole story in the Wine Spectator here.
That’s all I have for you today. The glass is empty, but the refill is on the way. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage #155
Meritage time!
I know it is somewhat early, but let’s start with one of my most favorite wine events of the year – OTBN. We are in February already, and that means that OTBN – Open That Bottle Night – is around the corner. OTBN is an event which is more than 20 years old, invented by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, wine writers behind the “Tastings” column in Wall Street Journal, to help wine lovers to part with those special, cherished, treasured bottles which all of us try to hold on to for as long as possible – and thus often missing an opportunity to drink the wine at its prime. OTBN is celebrated on the last Saturday in February – February 27 this year.
For many years now OTBN had been an important event in my book, as I’m unquestionably one of those hoarders who can never decide on the right time to open the special bottle. Celebrating OTBN paved the way to experience some truly special bottles such as the 1982 Olga Raffault Chinon or 1999 Soldera Brunello. This year, however, will be very different, as it is hard to get together in person. So I would like to suggest that whoever wants to join the virtual OTBN celebration on February 27, please send me a note (you can use the Contact Me form, email, or DM on Twitter) so I will be able to get you a meeting invite closer to the date. And you can already start thinking about that special bottle you will pull from your cellar to celebrate OTBN 2021.
OTBN only happens once a year, but then if you need help deciding what to open, you can turn your attention to the “grape holidays”, as I like to call them – a celebration of individual grapes that are taking place throughout the year. To help you keep track and make sure none of the grapes will be upset with you, here you can find a full list of the dates and grapes to celebrate. Actually, I already missed the Furmint day on February 1st, so yeah, time to focus…
A few more interesting tidbits. James Suckling published the list of all 100 and 99 points wines from 2020. There are 133 wines on the list, 52 of them are 100 points, and 81 are rated at 99. In order to see all the tasting notes you need to be a subscriber, but the list itself is available for free.
On an unrelated note, Wine Spectator produced a video introducing the Spanish wine region of Cariñena, the second oldest winemaking region in Spain and “the region to watch”. The video is short but contains a good amount of information about the history of the region, grapes, winemaking, and more.
That’s all I have for you today. The glass is empty, but the refill is on the way. Cheers!
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