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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 of, I pulled out a shelf with sparkling wines from the fridge, and 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 Quine 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 at 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 would try. 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. Similarly 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!
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