THought you might be interested that we’ve been in touch with John and Dottie and with their blessing really using social media to reinvigorate the concept and get happening again.

Hope you’ll get involved again in 2011 and spread the word.

http://www.openthatbottle.net/Open_That_Bottle_Night/News_files/OTBN%20press%20release%20.pdf

http://www.openthatbottle.net/Open_That_Bottle_Night/Home.html

I was in Portland as one of many on a panel to answer questions and concerns to students going abroad to Munich next year. Afterwards, I hopped on a train back home and a few friends picked me up for a girls’ night with wine, chocolate cake, cheese, crackers and a Food Network marathon of Iron Chef America.

Even though it was not quite OTBN in that none of us were saving wine (we’re all college students who are aspiring wine lovers), one of the wines we had, Chateau St. Michelle’s 2008 Vintage Riesling, reminded me of my year in Germany last year. It wasn’t because of the taste of wine, rather, the year and the grape variety used, the Riesling. After reminiscing with my Portland friends, the lingering aftertaste of German nostalgia lingered as I reflected the irony of drinking an American Riesling (something my friends chose without my input since I arrived late) with a few friends. The girls I was with also studied in different parts of Germany last year too, and so we spent a good portion of the night talking about our experiences. Although our experiences were not inextricably related to the St. Michelle wine we had, our past memories of Germany embedded in the word, Riesling, will always remain with us.