Two writers from the Wall Street Journal came up with a wonderful idea. Everyone has that one special bottle in their cellar that they are keeping for that one special day. It could be an old Bordeaux, or Pinot Noir or Sauterne. It doesn’t really matter, because the day never comes. The bottle sits long past its enjoyment age, or some tragedy befalls the owner before the cork is ever pulled.
The two writers, Dorothy J Gaiter and John Brecher, came up with a plan to save those bottles. They have designated one night a year, the last Saturday in February, OPEN THAT BOTTLE NIGHT. This is the official night when lovers, friends or both, take some of those special bottles out of their cellars for no other reason than to enjoy them.
This came to mind a few days ago when I was rummaging through my wine cellar and found a case of Beringer Sbragia Reserve Chardonnay, a vintage now long past its drinking prime. I felt extremely guilty finding that case. Years earlier, after I had forbidden my wife to drink it, I came home to find her and her best friend Di working on their second bottle. “Look who is home” she said. “See, what I found!” She was excited to see me. I can still see the smile on her face. “I found some of Eddie's wine in our wine cellar.”
She loved Beringer’s winemaker Ed Sbragia. “It was so hot today that Di and I decided to make wine spritzers." Di was giving me a big smile too. "Eddie's wine really makes a good spritzer.” My wife dramatized how hot it was by dropping her hand into her lap and shaking her skirt until she had pulled it well above her knees. This was a signal this girl of British descent used to inform her hot-blooded Latin husband that they should be looking into investing in air conditioning. Not to be confused with pulling the skirt an inch above the knees and batting the eyes. That is what you do when you are flirting with Scott McCloud of Neibaum Coppola. But, then who wouldn’t. Anyway, I ignored the signal.
“Do you have any idea what that wine costs?” I shouted. I was also a little concerned with what Ed would say when he heard that the de los Reyes’s were taking his prized Chardonnay and blending it with soda water. Needless to say, I was the big lump of coal in the stocking that day. I stormed out to the wine room and immediately created a spritzer shelf. I won’t tell you whose wines went on it. But, of course, it didn’t include Sbragia Chardonnay. That wine I saved for that special day that never came.
My lovely wife Sherrie died two years ago, and there sits that wine in the cellar. Now I would give anything I own to have one last opportunity to sit once again with her and laugh and tell stories about our day. Not only would I recommend we drink a bottle of Sbragia, I would recommend we drink the whole case. I would be happy to mix in the ice, the lemon and soda water myself. I would even call Eddie to tell him how his wine really makes a good spritzer.
I don't really collect wines anymore. Now I buy wines strictly to enjoy.