Tuesday, February 5, 2008

OTBN: February 23

Do you have a special bottle of wine stored away but you don't know when to open it? Do you keep putting off opening that bottle because you can't decide on the perfect special occasion? Well the time to open that bottle may be soon.

February 23 is the 9th annual Open That Bottle Night (OTBN). Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, who write a wine column for the Wall Street Journal, created OTBN. They created it to give people a reason to open that special bottle of wine that sits around and never gets opened because the right occasion has not arisen. OTBN is always held on the last Saturday in February. Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher also encourage people to send stories about their OTBN experiences. You can also check out their suggestions for celebrating OTBN.

I will be out of town on February 23 so I will have to bring my bottle of wine with me. But which wine to open? I am thinking it will be the 2001 Bodegas Fernando Remirez de Ganuza Reserva Rioja ($75), a fine Spanish wine. This Reserva Rioja, though the 1998 vintage, was the first high-end Spanish wine that really blew me away. It showed me the potential of great Spanish wines and set me on a path to pursue many more Spanish wines.

Farley, a fellow wineblogger over at Behind the Vines, is also running a special contest around OTBN. To enter, just add a comment to her post stating what wine you might drink for the event and why it has significance for you. You could win two bottles of wine, 2006 Rosenblum Cellars Zinfandels. Check out the contest rules for all the details.

The only problem for us in Massachusetts is that Behind the Vines cannot ship the wine to us. So, if you win, you will need to make other arrangement to obtain the wine.

Even if you do not enter the contest, I do hope to partake of OTBN and open a special bottle. If so, please come back here and tell me about it.

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