Open That Bottle Night encourages people to enjoy special wine now

George Kirk loved wine. His son, Rich Kirk, remembers a 1989 trip to Bordeaux, France, with his father. They visited some of the treasured First Growth wineries and even brought back a few trophy wines. Sadly, George died Jan. 21. He never opened the 1989 bottle of LaGrange he had purchased on that trip to Bordeaux over 30 years ago.

Rich inherited his father's wine collection, and found many other bottles George had stored in his temperature-controlled wine storage unit that were a little past their prime.

There was the 1990 Dom Perignon Champagne. The 1992 Insignia. A case of 1988 Opus One still in the wood crate resting next to a 5-liter bottle of 1993 Banfi Brunello.

"Here's a bottle of Silver Oak I bought him for his birthday a couple of years ago," Rich said as he was taking inventory. He also came across another birthday gift to his father, a 1990 port. "I thought he would want to open it up right away. But he never does. He saves everything."

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Curiosity was getting the best of him. Rich grabbed a screwdriver from the room next door and pried open the wooden crate housing one of Napa Valley, California's finest wines. It had been entombed in that wooden box for over 30 years.

"I just wanted to see if any of them have leaked."

The only thing missing that night was the Geraldo Rivera camera crew ready to document the findings.

The trouble with wine drinkers, myself included, is that we save our best bottles for an occasion so special that it never arrives. Many times the wine inside the treasured bottles slips past its prime and goes to waste.

In 1999, Wall Street Journal wine columnists John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter started Open That Bottle Night to remind us that good wine should be enjoyed with those we love, so that articles like this will never have to be written. It is much safer to uncork a wine while it, and we, are still in our glory years. There is nothing worse than to swirl the spoils of a bad bottle, way past its prime.

Technically, Open That Bottle Night is celebrated every year on the last Saturday in February. Rich and his wife, Donelle, insisted on opening a bottle of the 1988 Opus One cabernet with friends who had stopped at their home a couple weeks ago. We hoisted our glasses and toasted to George Kirk.

Time flies, and a fine wine comes of age sooner than we think. Grab that special someone and open the bottle you have been waiting way too long to enjoy.

Send me an email at [email protected] with any wine questions and follow me on Instagram @pmasturzo_philyourglass

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