Make Any Night Open That Bottle Night #OTBN

Here we are, the final Saturday of February. The days are getting longer, the sun is getting warmer and the crocuses are starting to break through the ground. These are beautiful signs that Spring is just around the corner. But what it really means to us crazy oenophiles is that there is another wine holiday and this one may be the Mother of all holidays if you let it be . 

The final Saturday of February

means that it is the official “Open That Bottle” night. This holiday was started by two wine critics who also just happen to be journalists for the Wall Street Journal. Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, in the late 1990s knew that too many people keep wine as a prized possession and wait too long to open it. There is the obvious that maybe the wine isn’t as good as it is expected to be, but there is also the adage of you may not be around to savor that sip. I know, that’s a very depressing concept, but every morning you wake up you have no idea what will happen and sadly you may not have another day. ( then that wonderful wine you were coveting will be consumed by another)

Dorothy and John are still advocating this wildly popular holiday. You can read their tips for #OTBN in the Wall Street Journal and here’s Dorothy’s article about #OTBN 2016 on grape collective.

Although a year has passed, I have to admit I still haven’t changed my opinion of this holiday. Technically, it’s not the holiday I have the issue with, it’s the reason we need this holiday. Mike and I do not have a “special” wine in our cellar. We have wines that may be valued at the price of several other bottles combined, but we don’t believe that makes it special. We drink a wine when we feel like drinking it. We pick a bottle not based on the price but based on what we feel like drinking.

We are not world travelers and maybe that makes the difference in some people’s eyes. We don’t have any wine from trips to Bordeaux or the Rhone. There are no wines that were carried all the way from Tuscany or Piedmont. But that doesn’t mean there is any less sentimental value attached to the wine we picked up while in Napa, Sonoma, or our little slice of heaven Paso Robles. The wine was part of an experience, a memory – so why keep it locked up in a cellar?

I have mentioned more times than I can count that I am a person who jumps in with two feet. Not too frequently am I waiting for tomorrow to come when I can do something today. So that may have a lot to do with how I feel about #OTBN. Before I end my annual rant [see last year’s here] on the topic, I’d like to leave you with a few quotes from some famous people who feel the same way [albeit, they probably weren’t talking about drinking wine.]

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone ~ Pablo Picasso

You may delay, but time will not. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him. ~ Charles Dickens – David Copperfield

Someday is not a day of the week. ~ Janet Daily

I hope you understand what I am trying to say. You never know what the future is holding for you. That is  a thrilling concept but also a scary one.  Live your life with no regrets. Open that bottle  tonight! The bottle  that you have been avoiding opening because it was “just too good of a wine” for whatever reason and then open the others whenever your heart desires. Don’t wait. Follow the words of Michael Landon Jr. 

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows. 

Did I convince you? Leave a comment on what you will be opening tonight. 

~Sláinte!