Kid birthday gift basket

When Michael and Heidi O'Brien of Arlington, Va., honeymooned in Napa Valley in 2003, they brought home a special bottle of Robert Mondavi Cabernet Franc sold only at the winery.

So it certainly seemed appropriate when Michael suggested that they share this special wine with his in-laws to celebrate Open That Bottle Night. Heidi's brother, Doug Buntz, had been stationed in Afghanistan for eight months, and this seemed like a nice distraction for her and for Sgt. Buntz's mother and wife, who brought a bottle from a Virginia winery near them. But that night, something else very special was uncorked in Arlington -- and all over the world.

From Qatar (where Nancy Fawley had a Hardys Sparkling Shiraz from Australia) to Iowa, La. (where Floyd and Carolyn DeWolf had a Turnbull Cabernet Sauvignon from California), thousands of people joined us on Saturday, Feb. 26, for Open That Bottle Night. As always, we asked readers to finally pop the cork on that too- special-to-open bottle, celebrate the memories -- and write to us. This year, our sixth, OTBN was marked by an unusual number of large groups, including the 36 residents of Palmer Station in Antarctica, who work for the National Science Foundation in a few small buildings between a glacier and the oft-frozen ocean.

"We are an isolated community in a harsh setting, visited only by our supply ship, and, very occasionally, by specialty cruise ships, private yachts and scientific vessels. Our visitors often leave behind the universal gift: wine," wrote Zenobia "Zee" Evans, a maintenance specialist. "So when I realized that OTBN was upon us, it seemed fitting that we celebrate our community. And we did. We selected an Argentine red left by the scientists from the Argentine research ship Puerto Deseado and a California white left by the good folks from the cruise liner The Clipper Adventurer. Our cook prepared seafood crepes. And we dressed up -- a rare event.

"Let me just say that the karma, the food, the conversation and the camaraderie were perfect. Other bottles appeared from nowhere [dessert wines and port]. The conversation sang. There were intimate moments shared by many. It was an evening we won't forget."

OTBN had some interesting twists this year. When we started this tradition in 1999, during the fat years, many people opened expensive "cult wines" from California. Then, in the past couple of years, many OTBN participants, in their notes to us later, mentioned war and recession and tended to focus on less-expensive but more- special wines that came with deep, personal attachments, including some made at home by relatives.

Among the hundreds of letters we've received since Feb. 26, few mentioned current events. But, on the other hand, celebrants included their children in the festivities in a way they never have before. It's as though, after bruising months of election battles and years of war, people wanted to put all of that aside and simply spend a night focusing on what's most important in their lives -- their children, relatives and friends.

In the recent past, the food of choice was simple -- steak, especially, and easy recipes for lamb. This year, there was more emphasis on complex dishes that took days of planning and preparation -- something for the celebrants to do together.

And, interestingly, one wine of choice this year was Barolo, the earthy, life-affirming and not-flashy red wine from the Piedmont region of Italy. Anne Cook of Philadelphia shared a Barolo Chinato, an unusual wine brought to dinner by friends who had lugged it back from Venice. They shared their experience of being "directed to the best gondolier in Venice, named Eros [I kid you not], and the marvelous meal where they first sipped the Barolo Chinato," Cook wrote. "For the moment, we were all there, and then we were back in Philly."

The bottles opened on OTBN, as always, brought back memories of good times and good people. For Christmas 2002, Brian J. Deagle's parents, Diana and Ronald, gave him and his wife a gift basket of wine and wine-related goodies. "The gift itself was from wine novices -- my mother, a White Zinfandel fan, my father a nondrinker - - to wine lovers," wrote Deagle, of Sammamish, Wash. A few months after Christmas, Mr. Deagle's mother became ill and died of cancer in October 2003. When his thoughts turned to this year's OTBN, he knew it was time to open one of those bottles.

"So, this last weekend, my wife and I savored the Chardonnay, nibbled on brie and crackers, and talked about my mother. Later that night I called my father and told him that Collette and I opened one of the bottles. He recalled how much fun they had driving out to the winery and picking out all the things to go into the basket. It is still hard to talk about my mother's death with my father. I could tell that he, like I, was grateful to have these pleasant memories surface in such a casual way."

All sorts of famous bottles finally got opened, of course. About 40 years ago, R.M. Shepard of Tulsa, Okla., bought a case of 1961 Lafite Rothschild for $18 a bottle. This turned out to be one of the greatest wines of the century -- and the price rose so high that Shepard couldn't stand to open the last bottles.

"My dearest friend hectored me many times to open a bottle. One night, after again fruitlessly importuning me, he asked in exasperation, 'Are you going to die with that wine unopened?' My response was that I was going to have it poured over my grave. In a flash he responded, 'You won't mind if we pass it through our kidneys first?' I eventually relented and we shared a bottle."

Shepard opened another on OTBN with his adult children, who were in town to celebrate his wife's 80th birthday. How was it? Still good, but over the hill. Oh, well, says Shepard: "Sharing it with our children was very special, but the moral is: Don't fall in love with your special wine and wait too long."

Indeed, as always, the liquid in the bottle wasn't really the point. Dede and Steve Ryan of Boise, Idaho, relived their youth by making Kraft macaroni and cheese, turning on some Bee Gees and screwing open a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill. The wine, alas, was "undrinkable," but the night "uncapped wonderful memories."

Added Joseph A. Susek of River Vale, N.J.: "We thought back to what my bride of 29 years and I drank when we started dating back in grad school and rekindled our lifelong love affair with a bottle of Blue Nun together with lovely Gorgonzola cheeseburgers. Thanks for the memories."

Don and Laura Gannon of Corvallis, Ore., celebrated their anniversary with a trip to Napa Valley 20 years ago and splurged on a $30 bottle of 1980 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon. OTBN finally gave them the impetus to open it. "Even our 14-year-old son understood that this bottle would probably be 'really good or really bad,' " they wrote -- and, fortunately, it was really good.

Their son was not the only kid with a supporting role. A surprising number of OTBN celebrants mentioned that they had met their fellow revelers through their children's activities; or that OTBN included everyone's children, drinking their own soft drinks, or was a celebration of the kids themselves.

But parents weren't forgotten, either. At the University of Vermont, Jonathan R. Day, who recently turned 21, "cooked one of my mom's classic dishes -- chicken Dijon" -- and opened a Chianti "because it reminds me of my family and a great trip we took to Tuscany last summer."

As usual, many of the wines -- and memories -- came from trips to wine regions all over the world. Ann Kreis and seven friends in Mexico City opened a bottle of Conn Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from a visit to the winery in Napa in 1986. It was "stunning," she reported.

Older classics were also popular this time around, especially Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon and Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

There were all sorts of surprises on OTBN, some about the wine and some about the food. Laura Blanchard of Philadelphia prepared a very special meal, but added: "The most amazing moment of this amazing dinner came at dessert," when she paired Wensleydale cheese with a Courtney Benham 2002 Zinfandel from California "and discovered that under these circumstances Zinfandel morphs into the perfect dessert wine. I mean, I'm not a food porn person who goes into raptures when describing the way two things work together, but jeebus!"