Hi Wine Lovers,
As you may know, last night, Saturday, February 24th, was "Open That Bottle Night" created by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher of the Wall Street Journal. Dorothy & John have an excellent weekly wine column in the Friday edition of the WSJ. They created "Open That Bottle Night" to give wine lovers a good excuse or a "special occasion" once per year to open a fine wine. If you enjoyed a great bottle of wine last night in honor of "Open That Bottle Night" we would love to hear from you! Please respond and share your thoughts. We have posted our thoughts below.
Cheers,
Theresa & Ken
My wife and I love the concept of "Open That Bottle Night" as it presents a "special occasion" and a good excuse for us to dip into our wine cellar. We review wines for a living for the website. We have a lot of wine on hand as samples to drink. As a result, much of our own cellar wines wait patiently for us to drink. We are not complaining, mind you. We realize it’s a tough job and somebody has to taste all those samples. Wink. Wink. So at our house, if it is not a special occasion or a dear friend isn’t coming over, we don’t tap into our wine cellar as often as we should. Sometimes this lack of use leads to some disappointing results since some of those cellar dwellers might drift past their prime. That was not the case on OTBN!
This year for Open That Bottle Night, I chose to reach for a wine that I tried and really liked many years ago at the Boston Wine Expo. That wine is the 1999 Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) "Reserve Tapestry" Red Wine from Napa Valley, CA. Tapestry is a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. I was very excited to open it. I poured it into a Riedel "O" Decanter. There was very little sediment to disregard. It was about 30 minutes before I allowed myself to sip the wine. I couldn’t wait to try it. The anticipation was killing me.
This very deep purple wine has a wonderful fresh new leather belt bouquet with a touch of fruit. On the palate, this wine has developed remarkably over the years in the cellar. I have had a few others from the late nineties recently that have not stood up as well to the test of time as this wine. It has retained most of its fruit flavors, but has also turned smooth as silk. The wine is so nicely proportioned that it would be an excellent complement to several different tasty meals. For example, I can see it paired deliciously with a Pork Tenderloin or a Filet Mignon. The wine finish is very, very prolonged, a touch acidic, and dry. I really enjoyed this wine and I am glad I had this excuse to drink it. I think now is the perfect time for this wine to be enjoyed and I would highly recommend it if you have a bottle in your cellar. This was my last bottle of this gem, but the happy memory will linger for a while.
Dorothy, & John, we hope you enjoyed your OTBN as much as we did. Thanks for creating this "special occasion" for all of us to enjoy some fine wine!
Cheers,
Ken & Theresa
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