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Photo taken from The New England Scholar under CCL |
It's that most wonderful time of year again... No, not FA Cup 5th round weekend; not the qualifying rounds for the Eurovision Song Contest. But, Open That Bottle Night!
Every year on the last Saturday in February, wine lovers from around the world gather their friends and families around them and celebrate that fact that you don't need a "special occasion" as an excuse for opening that particular bottle you've been holding, instead the opening of that bottle makes the occasion special - and it is always better to enjoy that wine with great company.
What are the origins of "Open That Bottle Night"?
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...
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 am I opening for #OTBN 2017?
What are you going to open for #OTBN 2017?
I hope that some of you will take this opportunity to open something special for OTBN. Please let us know what you are doing, tag us in photos on Twitter (@vinspireuk), tag me on instagram (@tjmilford) or tag us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/VinspireUK/). It will be great to see how everyone is celebrating...!