This past Saturday, we got to celebrate OTBN 2022! For those of you not familiar with this very important day, let me tell you about it. OTBN stands for Open That Bottle Night. It is on the last Saturday in February every year, and it was created by the wine writers of the Wall Street Journal in 2000. Why: It’s a great excuse to open oldie moldy wines that you and your friends may have been saving for just a little bit too long. I’d love to hear about your experiences with OTBN 2022. But for now, I’ll share my experiences with you.
A Small But Mighty Team
Normally, we have 10 or so wine enthusiasts at these events, which means we get to try 10 or so oldie moldy wines. This year, we had a team of five, which meant we got to taste five wines. But the incredible news is that we loved four of the five wines.
The White Wine We Tried
The white wine was the only wine we tried that we didn’t like. It turns out that it was a 2006 Muscat. Normally, you drink muscat within two years of the wine’s release. How I ended up having a 16-year-old bottle of Muscat, I’ll never know. Anyway, the wine came from Castello di Amoroso, the wonderful castle winery in Napa. We tasted hints of floral, peachy notes. But the primary smell and taste we got was dill. Hmmm.
The Red Wines We Tried
Believe it or not, we loved all four of the reds we tried:
- 2003 Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leep, Napa, CA
- 2003 Rosenblum Cellars Meritage, Napa, CA
- 2002 Cooper Garrod Cabernet Sauvignon, Saratoga, CA
- 2000 Cooper Garrod Cabernet Sauvignon, Saratoga, CA
Starting with the Pine Ridge Cab. We thought this wine was beautiful. We got notes of blackberry, deep cherry and pepper.
The Rosenblum was also lovely, but the fruits were dryer, including prunes.
The Cooper Garrods were amazing. Both came from George’s Vineyard, which was planted in 1972. George Cooper was the original winemaker at the winery, and his story is amazing. He became the winemaker in retirement, after having been a test pilot for NASA for years. George died in 2016, one month shy of his 100th birthday. A life well lived! Of the two wines, we found the 2000 to have a better nose and more character. While we loved them both, we liked the older wine more than the younger one.
Please share your OTBN 2022 experiences here. Thanks and Cheers!
