When Sarah O’Herron and Ed Boyce founded Black Ankle Vineyards in 2002, people told them they couldn’t make fine Syrah in Maryland. HA! Not only is the Mount Airy winery well-known for its Syrah, but on Feb. 22, in front of the world, O’Herron and Boyce will open their Syrah from 2007 and 2022 and taste them along with a very famous French Syrah. “Throw down with that one,” O’Herron told us. “Go big or go home,” Boyce added.
Why Feb. 22? Because it’s Open That Bottle Night 2025, when so many of us, from Prague to Walla Walla, uncork memories from a special wine. We created OTBN in 1999, when we wrote The Wall Street Journal’s wine column, because the most common question we received was some version of this: “I have this bottle from our wedding/my grandfather/an auction that I keep saving for a special occasion. When should I open it?”