++1
JZ said this?! Surely it's some sort of anal-retentivity thing... 
Yeah. It was on the "competition brewing" show from about a year ago where he and Gordon Strong were the featured guests.
I think several on the show agreed with him and said they also use new bottles. Maybe there's a good reason, but I just fail to see how cleaning and sanitizing a beer bottle is any different than cleaning and sanitizing a carboy.
Yep, JZ says new bottles only for competition and long term storage. His theory is that after beer stays in a bottle for months or possibley years, it's pretty tough to clean. And the fact that good bottles are brown, and you can't really visually inspect to make sure they are clean.
And for competition, I only use new bottles. However, for sharing out of my corny's on a regualr basis, I have about ten cases of the flip tops bottles from Fischer Amber, and I re-use them all the time....... And the beergun from Blichman is an awesome product.