"Open That Bottle Night" #OTBN - 2016

Photo taken under CCL from citywinetours

This coming Saturday (27th) is the last Saturday in February, which may seem a slightly inauspicious date; but to me, and many other wine lovers around the world, it means something quite exciting - "Open That Bottle Night" (or #OTBN to give it a 21st century spin...). 

What is "Open That Bottle Night"?

Many of you I'm sure will be wondering what all of this is about, so I'll explain. 

A fair few years ago two journalists who worked for the Wall Street Journal, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, were reflecting on an issue that they and others that they had spoken to had when it came to wine. They found that many people possess "special" bottles of wine: they could be from an auspicious year, perhaps one from a year that has some significance, or from a favourite producer or region. The bottle(s) sit proudly on the wine rack and await their moment of glory. The trouble is that the wine lover wants to celebrate a truly special occasion with this wine and nothing quite seems to hit the mark. The wine waits and waits, as the time passes the requirement for just how special the event is to merit opening the wine becomes greater and greater, and consequently the chances of the wine being opened get lesser and lesser. By the time the wine is eventually opened, it is invariably too late and the wine has spoiled, or else the poor wine lover finds that the wine was corked anyway... 

Photo taken from Molly & Fred under CCL

All in all, a pretty sorry state of affairs.

Gaiter and Brecher felt that rather than looking for a special occasion to open the special bottle of wine, the opening of the special bottle of wine should be an occasion in its own right. After all, what could be better for any wine lover then gathering around friends and family and enjoying that wine that we love so much? To aid this they decided that every year the last Saturday of February should be set aside as the date that wine lovers all around the world come together and open that bottle (or bottles) that they've been saving and spend an evening enjoying them. What a truly wonderful idea.

What to do then?

Last year I celebrated #OTBN with my wife and we had a lovely bottle of 2012 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Riesling Kabinett (Mosel, Germany), which you can read about in my post on it here. I am very pleased that this year, and in a completely unplanned manner, my brother and his wife are coming to stay with us for the weekend of #OTBN and they are both wine lovers so I am sure that we are going to have a brilliant evening. I have planned some rather fantastic wines, which I will reveal in a post after the event (I don't want to ruin any surprises for the evening!).

Get involved!

If you are planning on celebrating #OTBN please tag us in on social media (@vinspireuk on Twitter, or here on Facebook) and use the hashtag so that we can see what you're all uncorking for this special night!