Here is a picture of Rob with a bottle of Nobel One brought to Stockholm by Australian Tony Hall. This picture came to mind because we had a dinner party last night in New York to celebrate the Prize with friends while also observing OTBN (Open That Bottle Night) suggested to readers by the Wall Street Journal. Michael Barr has written a lovely little piece on the dinner that follows...
"Three years ago we met our now dear friends Rob and Marianne Engle while sitting side by side in a small restaurant on the Lower East Side. The conversation was sparked by queries about the food and wine we were enjoying separately but became much more animated upon discovering that we each had two children -- a son named Jordan and a daughter named Lindsey. That serendipitous night was the beginning of our wonderful friendship, enhanced by many bottles of wine (although Marianne and my wife Susan do get tired of watching Rob and me huddle behind a wine list). Who better to spend Open That Bottle Night with?
This year, though, we had something extraordinary to celebrate -- Rob had just won the Nobel Prize in Economics. A suggested OTBN dinner for four soon escalated into a five-course dinner party for ten, with Marianne, an accomplished chef, buried for a week in a mound of cookbooks and the rest of us rummaging in cellars for that special bottle (or two). Rob and I weighed whether five or six bottles was the right number (seven proved more accurate), and what wines to pair with Marianne's planned feast. It was a five-hour whirlwind of food, wine, and merriment, capped by a mouth-watering veal loin with imported morels and three sensational cabernets -- a Heitz '68 (elegant, dusty and sweet, not past its prime as feared), a Pichon Longeuville '82 (wonderful, but perhaps still too young), and a Caymus Special Selection '88 (vibrant, chewy and brimming with berry fruit). Then (over cheese and with a Yalumba Signature '99 Cabernet/Shiraz blend), we watched a video of Rob receiving his Nobel Prize from the King of Sweden and the formal banquet that followed in Stockholm. Our first OTBN was flavored not only by notes of earth, spice and cassis, but by the taste of sharing our friends' joy in celebrating a true once-in-a-lifetime honor."
So much fun.
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