Some of you may have seen the Feb. 10 Wall Street Journal article on
Open That Bottle Night. If you missed it, here's most of it. Also
worth noting, some folks at the University of Washington are using the
event to raise money for the local food bank.

Jef

>>>

It's official! February 28, 2004, is OPEN THAT BOTTLE NIGHT!

(and not a bad way to cure post-Mardi Gras depression)

Still haven't found an occasion "special" enough for that special
bottle of wine? DOROTHY J. GAITER and JOHN BRECHER, Wall Street
Journal wine columnists, have the answer - make the bottle itself the
special occasion - and OPEN IT! This year, the selected date is
February 28. Drop Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher an email with your
OTBN experience!

(WSJ, 2/10/04)

What is the reasoning behind OTBN?
Every one of us has that one bottle, like our Keenan, that is simply
too precious to open except for a very special occasion. It may or may
not be a great bottle of wine, but it's a special one. Maybe we
received it as a wedding present, or from a departed loved one, or at
a charity auction. Whatever it is, this is the bottle that is too
cherished to open except for a very special occasion. So we save it
and we save it, and the special occasion has to be more and more
special, and we never open it.

So we invented Open That Bottle Night, one night where all of us,
together wherever we are, prepare a special meal, open the bottle and
celebrate the memories that come with it. While we believe every night
of the year should be Open That Bottle Night, we know that sometimes
we need the help of a community to do something difficult. And the
celebrants of OTBN have become one heck of a community. During the
first four OTBNs, thousands of people all over the world finally
dusted off their special bottle and celebrated friends, families and
memories.

So how does one go about celebrating OTBN?
Now's the time. Open That Bottle Night takes place this year on
Saturday, Feb. 28, in homes and restaurants all over the world. Do it!
Make a special meal and open that bottle. Here are some tips so you
can make the most of Open That Bottle Night 5:

1. Stand the wine up (away from light and heat, of course) for a few
days before you plan to open it -- say, on Wednesday, Feb. 25. This
will allow the sediment, if there is some, to sink to the bottom.

2. Both reds and whites are better closer to "cellar temperature" of
around 55 degrees than at room temperature. Don't overchill the white,
and think about putting the red in the refrigerator for an hour or two
if you've been keeping it in a 70-degree house.

3. With an old bottle, the cork may break easily. The best opener for
a cork like that is the one with two prongs, but it requires some
skill. You have three weeks to practice using one. Be prepared for the
possibility that the cork will fall apart with a regular corkscrew. If
that happens, have a carafe and a coffee filter handy. Just pour
enough through the coffee filter to catch the cork.

4. Otherwise, do not decant. We're assuming these are old and fragile
wines. Air could quickly dispel what's left of them.

5. Have a backup wine ready for your special meal, in case your old
wine really has gone bad.

6. Serve dinner. Then open the wine and immediately take a sip. If
it's truly bad -- we mean vinegar -- you will know it right away. But
even if the wine doesn't taste good at first, don't rush to the sink
to pour it out. Give it a chance. If it isn't completely gone, our
guess is that it will be wonderful, in its own way, and reward you off
and on during the night. Start eating, and slowly sip the wine. Over
the years, we've heard from scores of OTBN celebrants who have told us
about wines that tasted yucky at first, then became delicious. Is it
the wine, or the warmth of the gathering as the night goes on? Does it
matter?

7. Talk about the person who gave you the wine, or the circumstances
under which you received it. This makes the wine resonate in a very
sweet and personal way.

8. Enjoy the wine for what it is, not what it might be or might once
have been.

9. Save one last glass in the bottle.

10. At the very end of the meal, after the dishes are done, pour the
remainder of the wine into your glasses (you might pour it through the
coffee filter if there's lots of sediment, though, personally, we
often like the gutsy taste of the wine with the sediment). Then drink
up, and enjoy those very last moments of a special night.

And, of course, No. 11: Drop us a note at about your
evening. If we include your name in our follow-up column, we'll send
you an autographed copy of our new book, "Wine for Every Day and Every
Occasion: Red, White and Bubbly to Celebrate the Joy of Living," when
it is published in October by HarperCollins.

wrote in news:bl1m3051rc6o8768nml410l2vl4hre6svi@
4ax.com:

> Some of you may have seen the Feb. 10 Wall Street Journal article on
> Open That Bottle Night. If you missed it, here's most of it. Also
> worth noting, some folks at the University of Washington are using the
> event to raise money for the local food bank.
>
> Jef
>
>>>>


Hee, hee...the Pol Roger is staying put for now!
But I'll *buy* something special to open, how's that?

d
"Hmmm, what would be good? Hmm..."