Everyone who drinks wine has one. Many who don’t drink wine have one. That bottle of wine that you have been saving for a special occasion.
It may have been bought on a trip someplace exotic or mundane, a gift for a special event or from someone no longer with us. The bottle that represents a memory that you are now saving for a special occasion. But as time goes on a couple of things start to happen. After looking at the bottle sitting there for a couple of years the occasion needed to open it becomes so important that you pass over opening it in the hopes of finding just the right moment. What will come first? The ‘right moment’ or vinegar. Wine is a living thing and has a youth, a prime, a maturity and, yes, a death. What a waste it would be to save a memory and then try to relive it by opening a bottle you have kept too long, adding a sour memory to your more pleasant one.
With all that in mind, someone smarter than I, created something called Open That Bottle Night back in 2000. The idea is to actively look through you wine cabinet and find that bottle that needs to be dusted off and enjoyed before it’s too late. The date for 2009 is Saturday, February 28th. So I encourage you and someone special to put aside an hour or so this weekend to enjoy that special bottle of wine before it is too late.
Oh, and just in case… have an extra bottle set aside and ready. It would be a shame to have no other choice than vinegar. 