In Zambia, Shardonnay Wine & Gin Bar celebrated its first Open That Bottle Night by letting customers bring their own wine and pay a small corkage, the only time that Lusaka’s first wine bar has allowed BYOB. In Australia, Dan Redman of Redman Wines had too many options, so he let fate lend a hand. “After throwing my paper aeroplane into our museum wine collection, the plane landed into our 2012 Redman Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon,” he said, adding: “This wine was humming.” Domaine Gayda in Southern France let its newest team member choose the wine, while Champagne Prestige des Sacres, a cooperative near Reims, raided its cellar for a 1979. And in San Salvador, Gerardo and Silvia Tablas, who have observed OTBN for 20 years, had a gathering with wines ranging from Cabernet Franc from Argentina to Chablis. “Carpe diem,” they said simply.
Saturday, Feb. 28, was Open That Bottle Night, an event we created in 1999, when we wrote the wine column for the Wall Street Journal, in answer to the perpetual question: When do I open this special bottle? The answer is: now. But we realized that all of us could use a push, so we set a date — the last Saturday in February, when we need a little warmth — to finally let those memories free in one collective corkpull.
This was a particularly big year for OTBN, with more bottles and more geographic sweep than we can remember, perhaps because current events tell us that the time to embrace life and loved ones is this moment. “Open That Bottle Night challenges the oft-held thinking that ‘this wine is too good to drink’ by reminding us that this wine is too good not to drink,” wrote Dr. Graham Cohen of Johannesburg. He opened a 2023 Retief Reserve Cape Blend.
The lineup of wines was stunning: Domaine Evremond English sparkler in Ottawa; 2007 William Cole Cuvée Claire Cabernet Sauvignon in Omaha, Neb.; 1989 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon in Osoyoos, Canada. Most were delicious, like the Pouilly-Fumé Tom Pounds opened in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He wrote:
“When we saw your post, we decided to open a bottle that we purchased from a small wine store nearly 30 years ago. For some reason, we just never seemed to find the right time to open it. So we finally opened our only bottle of 1996 Pur Sang by Didier Dagueneau. To our surprise, the wine was wonderful. It was unlike any Sauvignon Blanc we have ever tasted. This old wine never faded. We just had one of the most memorable wine experiences because we finally opened that bottle.”
But, as in life, there are ups and downs. In northwest Indiana, Christianne Wood-Grayson opened a 2009 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington she got about 15 years ago and is still the most expensive wine she ever bought. She wrote just before the night:
“I keep thinking there will be a special enough occasion to open it but that never seems to come. I even thought maybe our 20th wedding anniversary, but hubby surprised me with a cruise and I was too afraid to take it, thinking it wouldn’t survive. So I put it away, thinking maybe our 25th. Tonight my husband saw your page and said, ‘Hey, it’s OTBN! What should be open?’ The only bottle I could think of that I would regret not drinking before I die was that Quilceda Creek. And the thought of my kids drinking it without me was too much to bear.”
Even with filet mignon, sadly, the wine was “a bit of a disappointment,” she said, “but oh well, it was still an experience and one we won’t likely forget.”
Some OTBN celebrations were intimate and romantic and some were blow-outs. BottlesUp! in Chicago retained its standing as the world’s biggest in-person OTBN with 75 participants and 78 bottles, including a six-liter bottle of Famille Moussé Les Vignes de Mon Village Champagne. Near London, wine writer Tim Milford and his wife Izzy hosted a party that included well-known British wine consultant and columnist Libby Brodie. Sue and Mike Veseth and their group of long-time celebrants in Tacoma, Wash., opened an astonishing array, including a 2003 Corliss Cabernet from Columbia Valley — especially notable since Corliss Estate’s owners, Michael and Lauri Corliss, are members of the original OTBN group and 2003 was their first release. The River Hills Ski Club in Killington, Vt., which has hosted OTBN get-togethers for more than a decade, had 20 bottles for 28 people, including “a member who literally grew up in the club who just turned 21 and wanted to participate,” said organizer Sharon Lehr. You go, Kiddo!
Food, of course, was central to OTBN celebrations — Hatch crab cakes with Albarińo, blue cheese with Sauternes, duck confit risotto with Pinot Noir as well as duck breast and cherry reduction with Pinot Noir. Duck has always been popular on OTBN. For some scrumptious pictures, along with many more stories of the night, please go to our Instagram @dottieandjohn and look at the comments and reposts. Also, check out #openthatbottlenight on Instagram and our Facebook page for even more. The winking post of Schel Kidd (wisconsinwineguy on Instagram) at a buzzing nightclub drinking a glass of Bodegas1808 white wine is a must-see.
OTBN was celebrated at more wineries all over the world this year than ever, including Turley Wine Cellars in Paso Robles, where Allison Caruso, the sales and marketing manager, wrote:
Open That Bottle Night is the perfect reminder that wine was never meant to gather dust — it was meant to gather people. …We believe there is something genuinely powerful about the act of opening a bottle you’ve been saving and sharing it with those who matter to you. The moment of ‘let’s finally open this one’ has a way of turning an ordinary evening into a lifelong memory.
For us, it’s also about the Turley community specifically. Our wines end up in cellars all over the world, and we love the idea of people uncorking them on the same night, whether they know each other or not. Wine has been at the center of human connection for thousands of years…. We just want to be part of encouraging more of it.
Allison, meet Mark Block. He and 20 wine friends, who call themselves The Winer Things, had a spectacular Zin-themed OTBN in Livingston, N.J., which included a 2005 Turley.
And check out Piazza Discepoli in Cincinnati, where they opened a Turley White Zinfandel with an Instagram post that says, “We believe there are no strangers around a bottle of wine.”
Dr. Cohen of Johannesburg summed up OTBN as well as we ever could. He wrote: “Perhaps it’s because of my profession as an oncologist that this concept resonates with me. In my line of work, I’m reminded each day that sadly for some of us, we don’t always get to choose the perfect moment, and I’m acutely aware that every day we and our families wake up healthy and happy is indeed a very special occasion.”
What did we have? In the 1970s, we bought two bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from a hot new Napa winery called Silver Oak. It was their first vintage, 1972. The first bottle was delicious, so we kept the second — and kept it and kept it and kept it. It had traveled with us for more than four decades and we doubted it had much life left. But it did. It did. We enjoyed its elegant mélange of rich earth, dark fruits, and swooning finish for nearly three hours with Dottie’s brisket made in Grandma Helen’s cast iron pot and it was delicious to the end as we reveled in so many memories.
Melanie Hawks of Salt Lake City reminded us, though, that OTBN is about the future as well as the past. Before OTBN she wrote us about a bottle of Tannat from Chrysalis Vineyards in Virginia that she bought at the winery years ago that reminded her of college, relatives and old friends. She was nervous about sharing such an unusual bottle, but “the wine was perfect,” she wrote later. “Even the skeptics at the table were won over by its balance and complexity and sheer deliciousness. And it paired amazingly well with a barbacoa pork cheek appetizer.
“Opening a bottle I’ve cellared for more than a decade carries the weight of knowing that it’s not just the wine that’s aged. I’m not sure the person who bought that Chrysalis Tannat in 2012 would recognize, or be satisfied with, the person who opened it last night. I’m not sure who the person opening the bottles I’ll drink next year will be. But the bottles will be opened.”
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher conceived and wrote The Wall Street Journal’s wine column, “Tastings,” from 1998 to 2010. Dorothy and John have been tasting and studying wine since 1973. In 2020, the University of California at Davis added their papers to the Warren Winiarski Wine Writers Collection in its library, which also includes the work of Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. Dottie has had a distinguished career in journalism as a reporter, editor, columnist and editorial writer at The Miami Herald, The New York Times, and at The Journal. John was Page One Editor of The Journal, City Editor of The Miami Herald and a senior editor at Bloomberg News. They are well-known from their books and many television appearances, especially on Martha Stewart’s show, and as the creators of the annual, international “Open That Bottle Night” celebration of wine and friendship. The first bottle they shared was André Cold Duck. They have two daughters.
