Open That Bottle Night, 2010

Maybe I've heard of this before and already forgotten about it. Friends of ours came by the winery on Saturday to pick up used barrels to make into planters and one of them asked, "So, what wine are you opening tonight for That Bottle Night? ".

I scratched my head and said, I don't know, what do you mean, "that" bottle. You know, that one special bottle you keep saving for just the "right" moment. A birthday, anniversary, new job, new baby, etc. Huh. Still scratching my head. So I turned to Paul and asked if we had such a bottle in the house that we were saving. He shrugged.

We worked through the rest of the afternoon racking the 2009's and kept pondering "that" bottle to have. Still nothing. I went through a mental checklist of what's on my side and pretty much all I'm stashing are the gift wines (from Paul to me) that we'll open for a future Christmas dinner. So far, I've got nothing.

The reason for that is we celebrate just about anything anytime. Special bottles aren't for saving in my house, neither is champagne. At least once per month we open a bottle of bubbly "just because". When we go out to dinner and order a bottle of sparkles the waitstaff always asks, "oh, is it a special occassion tonight?", and they leave our table perplexed by our reply, "No, we simply enjoy it".

By the time we got home, we were both pretty tired, but Paul headed to the market and picked up a chuck steak that I ground up for burgers. While I ground the beef, he prepped the baked potatoes and an artichoke, and then headed off into the cellar.

He came back out with a 2000 Domaine Tempier Bandol.

My notes are really flat and basic; I liked it. I couldn't tell you anything more beyond that, it was a great quaffing wine with goat cheddar cheese burgers and baked potatoes.

I don't see this "event" catching on at my house, but if you're interested for next year I found this link:

http://www.openthatbottlenight.com