Pastor Dale Sillik and his wife, Donna, brought a 1998 Byron Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara, Calif. They got it on a cruise several years ago. Pastor Jill Henning and her husband, Matt, brought a sangiovese from a winery outside Roanoke, Va., near Matt's hometown. They got it last year at Matt's sister's wedding. Dick and Pat Curtis brought a 1990 Chapoutier Hermitage, a well-regarded Rhone Valley wine that Dick has just been dying to uncork for a couple of years.

And so it went on Open That Bottle Night 2008. For the uninitiated, OTBN is an annual event created by wine writers Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher to help us all open those bottles we thought we'd never open.

GIL KULERS/Special (ENLARGE)

A small sampling of the many special bottles that were uncorked recently on Open That Bottle Night 2008, an annual feast for the senses designed to share bottles that have been waiting to be enjoyed.

GIL KULERS/Special (ENLARGE)

Rob and Jennifer Beecham's 1975 Leoville Las Cases had ripe fruit flavors and a lovely ruby color.

KULERS UNCORKED GIL KULERS Gil Kulers is a certified wine educator with the Society of Wine Educators and teaches in-home wine classes. You can reach him at gil.kulers @winekulers.com or by clicking on his photo above. Related: • More on food and drink 2006 Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages  Why Australians shake the wine: It's a gas  2005 Greg Norman California Estates Petite Sirah  Good wine is more than alcohol percentage  2006 Kendall-Jackson Vineyards and Winery Grand Reserve Chardonnay

What did I bring to the party (which we celebrated on Feb. 24, the day after the official OTBN)? Well, besides my dinner of pot-au-feu and all the fixings, I have to report not much. We certainly opened some of my wines. We started off with a Pol Roger Champagne and a Domaine Chandon Rose sparkler with appetizers around the fire pit in the backyard. And I did open a single-vineyard, 2003 Chassagne-Montrachet especially for Donna, who's partial to whites. But none of these wines had a story, held a special place in my heart or was particularly overripe.

This was not always the case. Once upon a time, I was a Grinch-like hoarder. If you asked me if I wanted to open my 1997 Barolos, I'd wince and change the subject. My 1990 Chateau Latour? Are you kidding? The 1969 Haut-Brion? My 1994 Napa cabs? That 1989 Mission Haut-Brion? No. Nope. And I don't think so.

Then came OTBN. Dottie and John's wine celebration moved me to action. Difficult on the first night, but soon I was uncorking those keepers with reckless abandon, or at least with careful abandon. I didn't have to wait for one magical night a year to open "my babies." Any special night, be it a birthday or dinner at a friend's house, found me digging deep into my wine closet.

Which leads us to OTBN 2008. As I perused my catalog of 15 cases of hands-off wine in November, searching for a neglected OTBN jewel, nothing floated to the surface. I picked my two OTBN wines — the above-mentioned white burgundy and the 2003 Clarendon Hills Hickinbotham Grenache from Australia — for no other reason than they were about ready to drink.

At first, this bummed me out. It seemed that I always had a killer wine that I had been sitting on for too long or a special gift from my travels to various wine regions. So the selection process for the previous five or six OTBNs has been a cakewalk. This year nothing screamed "open me!" But as I've had a chance to digest my new situation, I've warmed to this current position. My wine collection is in balance.

I do still believe deeply that we all need to open and share those special bottles. So don't expect me to stop harping on this point from time to time. But for next year's OTBN, I might have to go shopping for a nearly lost relic, which of course is someone else's wine that was too special to open.

Downsized gathering

Rob and Jennifer Beecham of Cumming won this year's Open That Bottle Night contest for the most sincere OTBN story. Rob received a bottle of 1975 Leoville Las Cases for his 40th birthday two years ago and he felt it was time to open that bottle. This was a bottle that was definitely ready, but that is not why Rob won a mini wine seminar from yours truly. Rob won because he had the saddest OTBN story. His brother Brent, his father, Harry, and Rob invited 200 guests to their new winery, Monteluce, in Dahlonega for a mega Open That Bottle Night celebration.

Unfortunately, because of construction delays, they had to cancel. Saddened but not beaten, Rob and Jennifer invited seven couples, who all brought a covered dish and many interesting wines, to taste the Leoville and to hear me drone on about this historic winery that dates to the 1600s. The 33-year-old wine was in amazing condition, very much alive with ripe fruit flavors and a surprisingly vibrant ruby color.

Thanks to all the readers who sent in sweet and touching stories about their OTBN wines. Please write to let me know how things turned out.