Saturday, 24 February, is Open That Bottle Night in 2024. This wine day was introduced to let people know that we don’t need to save our ‘good’ wines for a special occasion. And this fits so well with our philosophy of celebrating the small victories we have, not just the major occasions.
How many times have we all said, ‘we can’t open that tonight, it’s too good – we need to save it’, or ‘we’ve put that away for a special occasion’… Has that occasion ever come?
So why not make the occasion! Gather your family or friends for a get together, and open that bottle. Make some special memories, and the wine will be definitely be enjoyed!
So this Saturday, we’ll be opening a bottle…
OPEN THAT BOTTLE NIGHT HISTORY
Open That Bottle Night (OTBN) was started by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher in around 2000. Dorothy and John were wine writers and journalists at The Wall Street Journal at the time. They wanted to encourage readers to open a significant bottle and share their stories.
It is celebrated on the last Saturday in February each year.
I had the pleasure of corresponding with Dorothy and John via email earlier this year, to chat a bit more about OTBN and how it is celebrated around the world, 24 years on from its inception.
I love these wise words from Dorothy:
“It was clear that, indeed, everyone—whether they had one bottle in the house or an entire collection—had that one wine that was always too special to open. You know how it is: Oh, let’s save this for a special occasion; and then no occasion is special enough; and the bottle just sits there, dying. As one OTBN celebrant once put it, these are wines that people are literally loving to death.
There’s sentiment and romance out there—much more than you might think from reading the daily news—and we think OTBN taps into that. In addition, there is just so much cant and snootiness surrounding wine. OTBN gives people a license to enjoy a bottle of wine for what it really is: an enjoyable, tasty beverage with some really good memories attached to it.”
Dorothy J. Gaiter
WHAT JULES WILL BE OPENING
Jules Ashmead, our winemaker:
I’m looking forward to the opportunity to ‘open that bottle’ because, like we all do, I have so many special bottles tucked away waiting for a special moment – that have special significance to me but in all honesty that are probably not getting a lot better by sitting in the cellar! I will be opening a bottle of Gracia from St Emilion, likely 2006. I can almost taste it now, richness yet restraint, and beautifully matured tannins seamlessly integrating on the palate. The attention to detail which my host family, Ma Famille Gracia, have put in to make this wine so special from start to finish is not lost on me – I know it’s going to be stunning – so long as that cork doesn’t interfere! Merci a vous tous! Bravo!
Have a great OTBN!
Whatever you choose to open on Open That Bottle Night, we hope you enjoy!