OTBN--Anyone playing along?

Ours will be an afternoon gathering at LWS for a blind tasting.

Done it every year for about 5 years now. 10 guests joining Dianne and me tonight.

Heavy hors d’ouevres (I can never remember how to spell it), lots of tasting glasses, lots of water, crackers cheese and salamis.

Always fun and a great excuse to crack open bottles that we save for special occasions that never seem to arrive.

Don’t post to anywhere, but we love the occasion (excuse).

Boy, am I slow to catch on! Had no idea what OTBN stood for and still don’t know what LWS is. Would this be a bad place to say I am tired of wine? Probably. But I shared with a lot of people here during the week, and on top of that, did tasting trials yesterday afternoon and then another round last night of 2011 Black Cat. Over 20 tubes of samples, 16 Riedel Cab glasses, notes, stickers, vials all over the place.

But…but…I just pulled one of my all-time favorites from my collection and will have it at one of my favorite restaurants, Spruce, in SF on Thursday night. 1994 Mount Veeder Winery Reserve Cabernet. I will try to pay enough attention to post notes.

Went this direction with some marinated grilled leg of lamb.

A-p-p-e-t-i-z-e-r

1998 Z-H Heimbourg Gewürztraminer, because I wanted Gewürztraminer.

I took the OTB idea into a slightly different direction. If it means “open that bottle” that you look at a couple times a week and never get to…I’m true to that. But in my case, I opened up a bunch of stuff that I’ve been dreading. Expectations of it being bad. 4 bottles opened. The results - 2003 Mayacamas - one undrinkable, oxidized. The other quite pleasant. A 2006 Paul Hobbs Pinot RRV - remarkably stupid, hot, disheveled, etc. A 2002 Rene Leclerc Gevrey Chambertin “Clos Prieur” - my WOTN.

None of these were life changers, but I was happy to bat .500 on this bunch that I had such low expectations for.

89 Pichon Baron (flawed unfortunately)
07 La Peira–unbelievably good
04 Match Butterdragon–Randy, you guys deserve to proud of THAT one!
06 Saxum JB–no words needed

I’ll plan to post notes tomorrow
Merrill–LWS=Local Wine Shop/Store
Sorry for being lazy

S

I am a huge fan of this concept and need to plan better with wine geek friends. Btw, their book, Love by the Glass is a wonderful read.
Merrill- it may reinvigorate your love for wine as quickly as that Mt Veeder!

Opening one of those biryani spice mixes?

Ok, I cheated - I did pull and decant a 2005 Napa Valley Cab - and it was the label’s reserve wine. It was very disappointing, as was the last 2005 I opened. Unless it is a great wine, I don’t sip and tell with Napa wines. I am going to finish it tonight.

A winemaker friend recommended this to me a couple years ago and my experience was the same as yours–unbelievably good!

:-/ hate a bad wine experience just as much as a bad meal out…

Funny and quite correct!

Coming up on Feb. 23. Still haven’t decided what to open.

Wasn’t it supposed to be any Saturday night in February? Or is it specifically the 23rd?

6 year old link appears to be broken (go figure). Have never heard of this, although from the thread seems self-explanatory.

They give you a random date to open bottles you never do?

http://guides.wsj.com/wine/entertaining-and-celebrating-with-wine/open-that-bottle-night/


This link works.

Here is another link by the original starters.

This is an awesome idea. Might have to play along!