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The time has come to open that good bottle of wine you've been saving for a special occasion and raise your glass with thousands of others around the world.
It's 'Open that Bottle Night' tonight and one local wine retailer wants to see you enjoying it.
Thousands of bottles around the world have been opened since the global wine drinking night started back in 2000 and Love Wine want you to share your photos once you've opened yours, using the hashtag #PullThatCork.
If you send in the best picture you'll win another special bottle for your wine rack.
Love Wine’s Director Chris Rogers said: “We often buy bottles and keep holding on to them waiting for that special occasion. Inevitably, the wine goes to the back of the rack and never gets drunk. This is the perfect opportunity to liberate those bottles and to use them to help create some new memories.”
“We want to see through your eyes what makes your wine experience special; it’s these moments that strengthen your love for wine.”
You have until Friday 4 March to share your best wine moment photo on either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
In the meantime here's a few tips to help you make the most of that special tipple:
Choose the wine. This is the all important first step. You don't necessarily want to open your 'best' wine or your most impressive wine, but the wine that means the most to you, the one that you would simply never open otherwise. You're looking for a bottle full of memories. On the other hand, if you have, say, a 1929 Lafite that's just sitting there, it's tough to argue with that.
Stand older wine up (away from light and heat, of course) for a few days before you plan to open it — say, on Wednesday. This will allow the sediment, if there is some, to sink to the bottom.
Both reds and whites are often better closer to cellar temperature (around 12ºC) than today’s room temperature. Don’t over-chill the white, and putting red wine in the fridge for an hour can be a good idea if your house is over 20ºC as you don’t want to be drinking Glühwein!
With an older bottle, the cork may break easily. The best opener for a cork like that is one with two prongs, but it requires some skill. You have some time to practice using one. Be prepared for the possibility that a fragile cork may fall apart with a regular corkscrew. If that happens, have a carafe and a coffee filter handy. Just pour enough through the coffee filter to catch the cork.
Otherwise, do not decant. It’s safe to assume that these are old and fragile wines. Air could quickly dispel what’s left of them. If the wine does need to breathe, you should have plenty of time for that throughout the evening.
Have a backup wine ready for your special meal, in case your old wine really has gone bad.
If you are having an Open that Bottle Night party, ask everyone to say a few words about the significance of the wine they brought. This really is what the event is all about, sharing.
Serve dinner. Open the wine and immediately take a sip. If it’s truly, irretrievably bad — meaning vinegar — you will know it right away. But even if the wine doesn’t taste good at first, don’t rush to the sink to pour it out.
Enjoy the wine for what it is, not what it might someday be or might once have been.
Get on social media and tell Love Wine about your evening! You can participate on either either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram by using the hashtag: #PullThatCork
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