Last evening was a very significant milestone/anniversary at our house. We celebrated OTBN CXLIV. In case you’e one of those unfortunate people that don’t regularly read this blog, here’s the background.
The founders of OTBN are Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher of the Wall St. Journal. Their wine column in February of 2000 read like this: Whether it’s the only bottle in the house or one bottle among thousands, just about everyone has that very special wine that they always mean to open, but never do. This is why we invented Open That Bottle Night, the world-wide celebration of friends, family and memories during which all of us finally drink that wine that is otherwise simply too special to open.
The event was first celebrated the last Saturday night of February in the year 2000, and the practice has continued every year since.
We first heard about OTBN from Chris and JR and celebrated it ourselves the first time the last Saturday night in February, 2007. We both thought it was great — so great that we thought we could improve on it. We set our own rules, and have followed them pretty faithfully since that night in 2007.
We decided this was such a good idea, it was a shame to only do it once a year, so we thought we’d do it the last Saturday night, not only of February, but the last Saturday night of every month. So that’s what we do…. the television goes off, I choose a special bottle of wine, we light candles and we talk — about anything and everything. It’s our special time together, kind of like a date night, only better. Sometimes we have cheese and crackers, sometimes a full meal, but OTBN is about talking, and listening, to each other — and the wine.
So last evening, the last Saturday night in February, 2019 we celebrated OTBN CXLIV — our 144th OTBN since we started the tradition. If you’re not good at math, that’s 12 years and 144 bottles of good/great wine. But more importantly, it’s 12 years of good times with someone I really love.
— 30 —