Dr Vino’s wine blog

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When Mrs. Vino and I went on our first trip to wine country in Northern California in 1995, I had high hopes of scoring some real bargains by buying directly from the winery. We drove up and down Route 12 in Sonoma, stopping at many wineries that then had free tastings. We pulled into BR Cohn and tried the wines and olive oils of Bruce Cohn and admired his gold and platinum records on the wall from his days as manager of the Doobie Brothers.

We bought a few bottles there and at other wineries. Even though I was frustrated to find hardly any discounts, I still insisted we wouldn’t be able to find many of these gems back in Chicago. So we both lugged a half a case under each arm through SFO and back to Chicago. Then I found many of the “gems” for sale at Sam’s. That was when I learned to never schlep wine–that’s what UPS is for–and certainly never make someone else schlep wine for you! (And now thankfully we have the internet too, which can locate wines with a click)

Those were some of the memories we had last night as we uncorked our B.R. Cohn 1993 Olive Hill Cabernet Sauvignon that we purchased from the winery on that trip 11 years ago. For the first time we got around to participating in the seventh edition of Open That Bottle Night (OTBN).

The wine itself was excellent and well beyond my expectations. Though not as vibrant a purple as it was in the tasting room, the aromas and flavors were still complex, with tobacco, leather, blackcurrant, faint chocolate all mingling into a long finish. Fortunately, we still have one more bottle.

What were some tales from your OTBN last night? If you missed it, pull a special cork sometime soon. The spirit of OTBN is about actually drinking fun bottles, instead of just looking at them (or worse, forgetting about them). Now that’s an idea we can all raise a glass to!

tags: wine | OTBN | BR Cohn