In larger cities, like Chicago, you can go to wine auctions all the time. In Fort Wayne, however, they’re not so common.

So when we heard there would be an auction of a wine collection of more than 600 bottles, we knew we had to check it out.

Because of scheduling and the fact that we have a 5-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son, only Dan was able to attend, but we ended up with five bottles of really yummy wine at a great price.

How did we do it?

First, we knew ahead of time what wines were up for auction and which ones we wanted.

The auction was ordered by a court after the bankruptcy of Wine-Styles, the wine store franchise that had first been near Time Corners and then moved to Coldwater Road just north of Coliseum Boulevard.

Although some of the bottles were clearly from the store’s inventory, others were from the owner’s personal collection. The auction was run by Ness Bros. Real Estate & Auction Co., and it listed all the wines on its Web site.

Looking at the list, it was immediately clear that this would not be like the auctions in Chicago held by Hart, Davis, Hart, where collectible wines sell for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars each.

Those wines improve with age and are often sought by investors; these were not.

There is a myth that all wine gets better with age. That is true to an extent, but for 99 percent of the wines you see on the shelf, that aging has already been done for you, and further aging will not only not improve them but could ruin them.

The rule of thumb to follow is that wines are put on the store shelf when they’re ready to drink, and they are best drunk within six months.

Most of these wines were in the $5-to-$15 range – almost never meant to age – and most were already several years old. So we knew without any research to steer clear of most of the whites and to be careful of the reds.

Then we went through the list and looked up any that seemed interesting using www.wine-searcher.com. That let us see what those wines were selling for to give us an idea of value and whether they were still good. We also used www.cellartracker.com, which is not only a great (and free, too) way to track your own wines but also a great place to look up wines and see real-person reviews and aging estimates.

Using those sources, we were able to highlight wines on the list we were interested in and what the retail price would be.

When Dan got to the auction, he found those wines in the catalog so he knew which lots to bid on. Because there was a good chance he would be recognized, he stood at the back of the auction so other bidders wouldn’t see what the wine columnist was after and drive up the price.

We ended up with five bottles of a Crianza, a Spanish wine made from Tempranillo grapes and aged in oak barrels.

Because we already knew that Tempranillo ages well and because this wine – a 2001 – was still retailing for about $16 a bottle, it was on our bid list.

Even after the taxes and fees, we got the wine for $8 a bottle.

And the best part? We opened one recently and it was so good we would have been happy to pay full price.

Toast and tell

Tonight is Open That Bottle Night, a time to get together with friends or someone you love (or both) and open that bottle you’ve been saving for a special occasion that never seems to come.

Remember, wine is for drinking, not for saving, and great wines are best when they’re shared.

So dig out that bottle, enjoy it, then write to us and tell us how it went so we can share your story.

The winner is …

A big congratulations to Tanya Whitaker of Auburn.

When we unveiled our new rating system, which gives ratings from both us and the tasting group instead of one combined rating, we asked you to write in and tell us what you thought.

Tanya had the best letter, so we sent her a copy of Victoria Moore’s new book, “How to Drink.”

Thanks to all who gave their input.

Cheers!