For One Bottle You Open That Night, You Might Win Two
My recent post explained what Open That Bottle Night is about: no longer waiting for the perfect opportunity to make the most of a special bottle of wine. The internationally celebrated event will take place the last Saturday of February, when guys and gals will pull out their waiter’s corkscrew, Rabbit, Ah-so, Laguiole or whatever opener is handy (or possibly not even needing one if it’s a screwcap or bubbly) and pour wine in celebration of itself. No need for a 50th birthday or 25th anniversary….
What do you have to do for my Open That Bottle Night Contest?
In the comment section below, tell me what wine you think you might drink for the event and why it has significance for you. Yep, that’s all. Each comment will count as one entry into the drawing.
How can you get an extra chance to win? Mention this contest on your blog or website and leave the link in the comment section. Those will be counted as another separate entry.
What might you get for your effort?
How about if — in return for opening a bottle you’ve been holding and maybe shouldn’t anymore— you get two brand new releases that should be held for a while? One of the benefits of working at a winery is getting the goods before they’re readily available to the public. Therefore, I happened upon two bottles from highly-regarded vineyards that were just bottled and aren’t even for sale yet:
2006 Rosenblum Cellars Richard Sauret Zinfandel
2006 Rosenblum Cellars Harris Kratka Zinfandel
Previous vintages of these wines have been on the Wine Spectator Top 100, been awarded the Best Varietal at the San Francisco International Wine Competition, received high scores from all the big names, and more. And they can lay down longer than many of their variety. I recently drank a 2000 Kratka that was divine and still going strong.
*What’s the catch?
Well, you’ve got to be 21 or more. And you have to live in a state in the U.S. where I can ship them to you directly and legally. (Sorry, international readers, I still adore you.) I think these include AK, CA, CO, CT, FL, HI, IA, ID, IL, MI, MN, MO, NC, ND, NE, NH, NM, NV, NY, OR, SC, TX, VA, WA, WI, and WV, but I’ll double check when I return to work today. We can ship to DC, but only 1 bottle.
Other options if you’re not in one of those states:
-Perhaps you have relatives or friends in a permit state where I could send the wine, and you could retrieve it on your next visit.
-Or maybe you’re planning a trip to the Bay Area some time this year and you could pick up your prize personally at the winery.
Deadline: February 20 Which means you have a little over a month, so get to thinking…And I will do my best to announce the winner the next day and ship out the bottles within the week.
Cheers and good luck!
Great idea Farley!
I have to think about this one..we have a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet (the year escapes me at the moment) that we got as a housewarming present….I guess I haven’t been holding onto it too long, only since May.
I’ve also got a few more hanging around that we picked up on our honeymoon as more pricey bottles that I said I’d hold for a special occassion….so maybe the Robert Young 2002 Scion….or the 2000 Alexander Valley Vineyards Cyrus….
Darn, I don’t live in one of the blessed states. But then again, my favorite wine is the white chardonnay that Almaden packs in the box…not a real highbrow…
Hi Farley – I love the idea and have adopted it immediately. I have written about it on my blog (http://madbloggen.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/en-helt-legal-undskyldning-for-at-drikke-gammel-vin/ – its in Danish and will probably not make much sense to you). Hopefully the word will spread in Europe too
Hi Farley
Sounds fun! We have a few vintages of Caymus both “regular” and special selection. Megan got me a Magnum of Special Selection ‘01 for my birthday 2 years ago that we have been holding onto. It will probably be one of the above, but we also have a Lewis Cab and a Pride Cab that we have been putting off for that “special occasion”.
To be entered in your raffle do we need to have a firm commitment to one wine or just a commitment to open something we have been putting off?
Thanks
John
Hi Farley. I can’t win the prize…FYI, I participated last year but I am stumped this year. Perhaps I will go with a Barolo/Barbaresco because I never know when to open those. We’ll see, I will try to be more clever.
Good ideas, guys.
Well, maybe not you, Cyndi, but only because it’s not Open That Box Night! Not due to content cause it’s whatever floats your boat.
Sorry about you foreigners not being able to get the prize. Though, Joe, you seem to get down here pretty often, huh? Eva, probably not so much.
Megan, Can I join you? Or John? Or Joe? I’ve never had Barolo, sadly.
As for the raffle, it’s just the thought, not a definite decision. Plus, don’t forget you get another entry for a mention on your own blog.
Yeah you can join us, especially if we pop the magnum of special selection. WE will need some help with it!!
You definitely need to try a Barolo, they are fantastic. We have a few in our cellar from our trip to Piemonte this summer, but they won’t be ready for a couple more years.
SEe ya
JOhn
I’ll have some wine from Sleeping Dog winery because that’s my local winery (a block away)!
Benton City, WA
I’ll open Harvest Moon 2002 Pitts Home Ranch Zin. Mmmmmmm……. the inaugural vintage of Randy Pitts yummy russian river zin.
Hmmm. We’ve run through a bit of our stash lately, so interestingly enough, one of our last holdouts is Rosenblum related. We’ve got a magnum of Flock Cellars Brandon Roberts 2000 Veeder Mt. Cabernet that we’ve been holding onto since 2001. We used to babysit Brandon when we lived in Alameda – his grandfather was the late Al Flock, former COO, president and general manager of Rosenblum. Each of the grandchildren’s birth was celebrated with limited edition of magnums in his or her name. So I guess it’s time to open it up and drink to Brandon!
Great idea, Farley, and way to publicize John and Dorothy’s great event. I’m gonna open my first bottle from my stash of 2003 Bordeaux–the Chateau Cantemerle, to be exact. Not hugely expensive, but I always wait as long as possible to crack into the first bottle of the vintage. So I’m going to just DO IT and open one. I’ve got more, so what’s the stress, right?
I think I might open up a bottle of a dessert wine that we picked up the last time we traveled through Canada. Can’t remember what it is exactly but its something with the sweet taste of coconut and dacqari.
Maryland doesn’t allow wine shipping, so I can’t enter, but good luck to everyone. I can’t decide if this law is a smart move that has allowed our many small local wineries to grow and prosper without competition from those wine a week groups or if it is stifling their growth because they can’t reach out to other states as effectively. I guess that is a whole new post, though.
I will likely open a 2001 Bodegas Fernando Remirez de Ganuza Reserva Rioja. This is the first high-end Spanish wine that really blew me away. (Though I originally had the 1998 vintage). It set me on the path to pursue many more Spanish wines. And this past fall, I got the opportunity to visit the winery.
I also mentioned your contest on my blog.(http://passionatefoodie.blogspot.com/2008/02/otbn-february-23.html)
Great Idea! I posted today about your contest. I’m thinking of opening either the Duende Pinot Noir from Fiddlehead or my last 1997 Buttonwood Cabernet.
here’s the link: http://www.westcoastwinecountryadventures.com/2008/02/jump-in-and-have-some-fun-in-wine.html
Wow, now that I see all that great wine, I’m thinking I should open one of the Burgundies I’m afraid to open…
what a coincidence. My entry is also a Rosenblum from the Hendry Vineyard. We’ve been saving it for awhile since they don’t make Hendry vineyard wines anymore. (Luckily Hendry makes its own awesome zins).
hello hello…
my new bride and i have been saving a Biale Monte Rosso for a special occasion… and being that the prize is a couple from Rosenblum– i find it perfectly appropriate.
best
tv
Preston Vineyards 2006 Viogner, bought on Honeymoon
Technical Data
Varietal: Viognier
Vintage: 2006
Estate Grapes:100%
Year Planted: 1990
Soil: Gravelly soils
Barrel Fermentation: 40%
Alcohol By Volume: 14.0%
Bottling Date: 06/05/07
Release Date: 07/01/07
Total Cases: 313
Aging Potential
2-3 years from vintage
This sounds like a great opportunity to open a wine the hubby bought me last year, it was a Just Because wine but something he’s never done before. I thought of waiting until our anniversary or the new year but I think I’ll join in on this.
I have a bottle of 2004 Nagual de la NAGA, from Caduceus, Maynard Keenan of the band TOOLs’ vineyard.
I have been saving it because they are my fave band, it’s like a collector item for me, but I am dying to taste it. Other people have told me it’s fabulous, so I will promise to open it if I should win.
He very rarely releases new wines, and they sell out so quickly, but I will do it if you should choose me. I promise to tell you how it was as well.
Great contest! I’ve been stockpiling several of my favorite Santa Barbara County wines for those times when I get homesick – the last Saturday in February is as good as any.
Well, since one of my favorite wine country excursions, I’ve had a bottle of 2002 bubbles from J Winery chilled and ready to go for that special occasion, that seems to be taking it’s sweet time getting here! So….I’ve decided to celebrate and say cheers to living and being in the moment at OTBN! Thanks Farley, Slainte!!
As much as I love the idea of living for today, not tomorrow, I must sadly confess that the only bottle of wine I have tried and thoroughly enjoyed cost about 5 bucks…so sad LOL
Farley,
We will be opening a 2000 Il Poggione Brunello from a trip we made to Italy in 2005. My wife’s Matron-of-Honor and her husband celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary that summer by renting a villa in Tuscany and inviting family and friends over to celebrate and share it with them. They just recently had their third son , so we will be celebrating our friends through the memories of numerous weddings, a wonderful trip, and a special toast to the birth of Charlie. We’d open it with them if they weren’t in Colorado and we were in Massachusetts.
Enjoy!
-Brian Mulvehill
We’ll open our 2000 Il Poggione Brunello, one of many bottles that rattled around in cars, trains, and planes all the way from a tiny village in Tuscany to our own tiny New England town in 2005. My oldest and truest friends invited us to celebrate their first decade together at a rented villa outside Lucca that summer, where our baby daughter could get to know their own two little boys. It was a wonderful adventure – we spent our time eating, drinking, exploring, and catching up with people we love and don’t see often enough. We’ll remember it happily on Open That Bottle Night.
On my first trip to Italy a few years back my girlfriend and I desired to take a cooking class but unfortunately hadn’t pre-arranged one. One evening we happened upon a small wine bar/restaurant called la Congrega (http://www.osterialacongrega.it/) and we struck up a conversation with the proprietor who claimed to have been the star of a cooking television show in past years and he would be happy to provide the two of us with a cooking experience in his kitchen the following day. I asked him if it would also include wine (he said his family produced the wine we were drinking (Altomena Oenant Chianti Riserva 2001) as well as the Olive Oil and of course he could include that.
Well we showed up the next day and the three of us worked in his small kitchen learning how to make several wonderful dishes and my favorite, pasta by hand. We enjoyed it immensely and found it to be one of the most special afternoons we had in Florence albeit a bit on the sloppy side (the Altomena of course making it so).
Pictures:
http://www.permanentlounge.com/lacongrega/index.html
The food was fantastic the host superb and we were blown away by the wine (although our host claimed the wine to be a super tuscan it seems the jury is still out on what exactly that is. Almost everyone in Italy had a different definition of this term and returning to the states didn’t really shed any light on this matter either).
Vanessa and I are stuck in one room of our home while renovations are progressing on the other parts of the house so upon hearing of Open that Bottle Night and finding this competition (we are big Rosenblum fans) we are planning on setting up a few candles and sitting indian style in our newly plasterboard and cement-board kitchen and enjoying our “super tuscan” Chianti. And I am going to dig out the crystal as there will be no plastic cups for this occasion. We hope everyone enjoys this evening as much as we will.
Bruce Smith – San Francisco
http://www.permanentlounge.com/lacongrega/index.html