Time In A Bottle

Imagine a world where you could go into a specialty shop and buy an elixir that transports you back in time. A sip of this potion could return you to a former life thousands of miles and many years away; or that time on the coast of France where you ate oysters fresh from the sea; or the day you met your favorite winemaker on your wine country adventure.

That world exists. And the shop in question? It’s your local wine retailer.

For many people, wine can be complex jumble of varieties, foreign words and Byzantine customs. That’s a shame.

Nevertheless, when stars cross and life kisses you full on the lips, a wine bottle often has a front row seat to the show. It’s a marker that you take forward and whenever you open the same or similar wine, those special moments re-materialize. Re-living momentous occasions—happy or heart-wrenching—makes life sweet.

When was the last time you paused to share with your spouse, your best friend or yourself to say: “Remember that time…?”

Too long! I say.

That’s why on Saturday, Feb. 28, you should be uncorking a bottle of wine with that special person (or remembering someone special) on the 10th Anniversary of Open That Bottle Night.

For the uninitiated, OTBN was conceived by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, “Wall Street Journal” wine columnists, to coax people into bringing out bottles of wine they thought they’d never open or procuring a special bottle to conjure up special memories.

OTBN brings out remarkable wines and stories. Take Marita Heberling of Atlanta for example. “My husband, Dar, and I will be opening a bottle of mead [honey wine] that we brought back from a trip to Lithuania,” Marita says. “This trip was the culmination of a many-year search for my Lithuanian relatives, who had been banished to Siberia by Stalin. Our families reunited last year and this bottle is a memento of that event.”

Coturri wines hold special memories for Paul White. Two years ago, White gave up his job as general manager for the Sonoma, Calif., winemaker to take a chance on a start-up winery in the North Georgia Mountains. Paul, his wife, Starr, and two young children (Bailey, 8, and Callaway, 3) moved from Glen Ellen, Calif., to Dahlonega, where White is now GM for Montaluce Winery & Estates.

“I will be opening a 2003 Coturri Cote des Cailloux, which I had big hand in producing,” White says. “I was part of the picking crew who transported [the grapes] to the winery; I actively participated in the crush and punched down the caps in the fermenter; I was actively involved in the bottling, the labeling and then the selling of this wine. This wine is a part of me. When I open this wine, it will take me back to the terraces where these grapes were grown.”

White will share the Cote des Cailloux (a grenache, syrah and mourvedre blend) with several dozen others on an OTBN wine crawl sponsored by Montaluce. The event will be hosted by residents of the opulent Tuscan-style villas located on the winery property with panoramic views of the vineyards.

White’s boss, Brent Beecham, part-owner and developer of Montaluce, cannot wait for the wine-soaked home tour to begin as he will be opening his 2004 Brancaia Il Blu. The highly regarded Super Tuscan wine was given to him by his mother, who could not have known at the time that it would later be named a Top Ten Wine of the Year by “The Wine Spectator.”

“I keep staring at it trying to come up with a reason to drink it,” Beecham says. “What better excuse than OTBN?!

That’s the same excuse given by Labe Mell, the well-liked and long-time Atlanta wine educator. “Being a depression child, I continue to find it difficult to open a special bottle of wine for no particular reason other than it being ready to drink.” Nevertheless, Mell will open a classic 1988 Cheval Blanc from Bordeaux given to him by his son-in-law and daughter. At 82, he concedes his mortality and the possibility of hard feelings if it remains unopened after he is gone. “I don’t want them to find it when they and my other children come to clean out my wine cellar after my death. I’m still wondering if I’ll have the will to [open] it.”

As apprehensive as Mell is, Lars Snavely cannot wait for Feb. 28 to come. “Wine is much more fun when you are sharing,” says the “mostly retired” Snavely, who works two days a week at Sherlock’s Wine Merchant in Marietta.

Over the years, Snavely acquired a number of California zinfandels from the 1990s, including several signed by zin specialist, Joel Peterson, founder and winemaker for Ravenswood. He will celebrate OTBN night a day late with a Sunday afternoon meal along his girlfriend, Johnnie Faye McKenzie, and a small group of friends. Snavely, an accomplished cook, will whip up southwestern-style pork tenderloin with the help of a recipe from Bobby Flay.

“[OTBN] is a great idea,” Snavely says. “I’ve lost a number of bottles simply because I put them away and forgot.” Whether you have a large collection or just a few bottles, Snavely recommends sifting through your wines annually and opening them before they die. And, of course, it’s always nice to recall where, when and how the bottle was acquired.

“I met Joel in California,” Snavely recalls. “He makes wonderful wines and he is such a great and funny guy.” Snavely and his guests will surely enjoy the spicy pork and their virtual return to Ravenswood.

Sharing OTBN Wines On-Line

Social networking sites Twitter and Facebook will help revelers around the world celebrate Open That Bottle Night.

Starting at 8 p.m. EST on Feb. 28, Twitter Taste Live participants can join in a mass discussion of the wines being opened on OTBN. To ask questions, make comments or offer answers, participants must have a Twitter account (www.twitter.com) and RSVP at www.twittertastelive.com.  On OTBN, revelers can go to the site to see live video streams of events around the world and exchange remarks in real-time Twitter feed. To spur discussion of similar wines, contributors are encouraged to open wines from four less-known wine regions (to find the names of the wines, go to www.openwineconsortium.org).

OTBN celebrants with Facebook accounts can join the Open That Bottle Night Revelers group and post accounts of their event. Also, the website, www.openthatbottlenight.com, will collect stories and images of OTBN celebrations from around the world.