The Friday Fermentable: Open That Bottle Night 8

Do you have some ancient bottle of wine someone gave as a gift and you are waiting for that "special night" to open it? Well, tomorrow night is "that" night.

We all seem to accumulate bottles of wine as souvenirs or gifts from overseas trips, weddings, birthdays, etc. and always think we need some special occasion to open them. Unfortunately, too many of these bottles go way past their prime waiting for that special occasion. We rarely give ourselves license to open those bottles.

As a remedy to this situation Wall Street Journal wine writers, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, established the tradition of "Open That Bottle Night" eight years ago for the last Saturday in February. Dr. Vino gives an example of the discussion from last year.

Believe it or not, Open That Bottle Night, or OTBN, has actually become quite the marketing tool and is well-known.

The beauty of OTBN exemplifies all that is good about wine: sharing special moments with special people, maybe around a special dinner, and telling the story of the bottle of wine that is being shared. John and Dottie pull out some great stories from readers every year, some heartwrenching and some simply joyous.

You can always e-mail them at wine at wsj dot com but you are also free to comment here on what you open tomorrow night and the story behind it.

Dig out that treasure and open that bottle!