Open That Bottle

The last Saturday in February is ‘Open That Bottle Night’, a night when wine lovers are encouraged to open a special bottle and share with loved ones, rather than leaving it to age in the cellar. Sort of a ‘Seize the Day’ attitude, along the lines of ‘Use the Good China’.

We don’t have a wine cellar, and we generally buy wine and then drink it, and then buy more wine. There’s not a lot of room for storing wine in condo living, and I fear that if I had a constant supply, I might drink every night, which while good for relaxing the muscles is not so good for my waist line.

In the same spirit (without waiting until February), we have 2 wines selected for Thanksgiving that have some meaning to us. Neither are big fancy wines, both in the $30-$35 range, which not exorbitant, but is more than we generally spend. But they both have a story and some memories for us.

First is a Petite Sirah by Three Wine Company. This is a new wine for us. We’re late to the Petite Sirah game, and also to this winery, which is located in Contra Costa County (which is where we live, though the vineyard is closer to Sacramento). One day in September, Maya was at work, and Ted and I were in charge of showing his cousin Dave and his wife Margaret around. They were here for the wedding, and were spending the days ahead of it seeing a bit of California. There is a tasting room in Clarksburg, about an hour and a half from us, and it is a lovely drive full of country roads, once you get out of the Bay Area. There were lots of trees laden with pears, tempting us, but we did not stop and steal any, mainly because it was a 2 lane road and we would have perhaps held up traffic. Anyway, Clarksburg has an old sugar mill (conveniently called, “the Old Sugar Mill”) which used to be a beet sugar refinery, but now houses tasting rooms for 15 local wineries. So we made the drive up to Clarksburg, stopping for lunch along the way, and tasted some wines. They were surprisingly good. I expect wines from other regions of California to be good, but am often surprised when wines from the Central Valley turn out to be delicious. I shouldn’t be, there are some really nice wines, especially from Lodi. But I digress. One of the wines we tasted was the Three Wine Petite Sirah, which Ted loved. We took a bottle up with us to Windsor for the wedding, and drank it the night of the Hindu ceremony. Sadly, we only bought one bottle, and Ted’s brother Steve was out helping get things ready for the Saturday reception, and did not get to have any. Steve is a big lover of wine, especially reds, so he was sad to miss out. Ted decided to buy a bottle and have it shipped to us, and we will bring it to Thanksgiving dinner. We will enjoy it with happy memories of a lovely weekend and two lovely weddings.

The second wine is a Smith Madrone Chardonnay, which is an older story. Back when Ted and I were dating, we used to love a Cajun/Creole restaurant in San Francisco, Elite Cafe. We would go there as often as we could afford, sometimes for a full on dinner (they had the BEST shrimp etouffe), sometimes for oysters and wine at the oyster bar. One evening we ordered the Smith Madrone Chardonnay, which we loved. We found it at a local Safeway once or twice, but it was not there for long. I don’t think they make a TON of wine, it is a relatively small winery. At the time, I worked at a big fancy hotel near Union Square, and we had contests sometimes for the Front Desk employees. One of the prizes was a night at a beautiful hotel in Napa, Auberge du Soleil. Ted and I went up, and while there, we wanted to taste wine at Smith Madrone. It was difficult to find, and you had to make reservations, they don’t have a tasting room with staff to serve you at any time, and of course, this was the late 80s, so no internet. We persevered and finally found it, and were rewarded by a lovely experience. The winery is managed by the Smith family, two brothers back then, now I believe a son has joined them. So Charles Smith was there, and he took us to the rooftop tasting area, which has a beautiful view of the hills and vines, and poured three full glasses of Chardonnay, which the three of us drank, and we chatted. I think he liked that we were college students up for a trip that we had won, he was not put off that we only bought 2 bottles (all we could afford), and he signed them for us. He was a SF State Alumni, and we were students there, so there was another thing to like as well.

Back then, there was no charge for wine tasting at most wineries. They started charging perhaps 20 years ago. I don’t know enough about it to know whether that was to keep expenses down or to keep people from getting quite so toasted and then killing someone by driving drunk. But the charge is generally $10 – $25 dollars now, with a premium tasting going for even more. They usually (but not always) waive the fee if you purchase wine. But on this trip, all of the places we tasted were free, even if we didn’t buy.

Sadly, we were ignorant about wine back then, and we stored our signed bottles of Chardonnay on top of our refrigerator. And since it was ‘special’ we did not drink it, but saved it for quite a few years. You don’t really save Chardonnay like you do a good Cabernet, and if you did, it would NOT be on top of your fridge. Eventually we drank the bottles…one was OK, the other had turned somehow (even turned color, kind of orange), and sadly we learned our lesson. Either store your wine correctly, or drink it. And not all wines last a long time. So recently when at our local Total Wine store, I spied the Smith Madrone Chardonnay. I haven’t seen it anywhere in years, and it brought back fond memories. I didn’t buy any that day, as the price was high, but when a $10 off $40 purchase coupon arrived in the mail, I decided that I would splurge and get some for our Thanksgiving table.

I’m looking forward to opening these bottles. Perhaps I will remember to report back and let you know how they are.