Old Ghost is Powerful, Great Zin! Wow! Bam! Zap! Bang!

If you like great Zinfandel and occasionally a really big Zinfandel, Klinker Brick is a name you need to know.

I tried Klinker Brick's Old Vine Zin earlier this year and just loved it. That Zin is usually available in the upper teens. You can find my blog entry here.

Friday night I opened a bottle of Klinker Brick's signature wine, the Old Ghost Zinfandel - a 2005. Wow! Bang! Zap! - I feel like using words from the 60s Batman show!

I thought the old vine was a nice, big and well-balanced Zin. The Old Ghost just turns it up a few notches. The wine comes from vineyards that are nearly 100 year olds. The yield is very small but it sure packs a huge punch on the palate.

I'm not sure about every year, but there have been years the winery has limited customers to just one case!

The wine has strong fruit with big alcohol. At 15.5, you'll know you've been drinking big Zin. Always keep in mind too with these big California Zins and Cabernets that the alcohol printed on the bottle is considered by many to be lower than reality!

I loved this wine and will definitely replace this bottle I had been saving for more than a year and a half. The wine ratings folks have this from the high 80s to very low 90s.

It is a different price point. I found it online from $29 to $41. I seem to recall paying in low $30-range when I bought it at Kahn's on Keystone in Indianapolis.

This is dynamite red wine. It lives up to its reputation and definitely worth the higher price!

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

A Special Treat - Daedalus Gruner Veltliner from Oregon

Every now and then, even with no guests in the house, I reach for something a little special to lift my spirits or just for the heck of it!

Tonight was a "just for the heck of it" kind of night. I grabbed a bottle of Daedalus Cellars Gruner Veltliner. I bought this bottle in the Dundee, Oregon, tasting room during an April visit earlier this year.

Gruner Veltliner is best known as an Austrian wine. Daedalus and others say the small family-owned Oregon winery is one of only two in the United States producing a "Gruner."

You can go to the website link above and read the details about the wine. Here is what I liked. The wine is a great food wine. I prepared some thin pasta, olive oil, shrimp, frozen pees, in olive oil with some garlic and light Italian seasoning. The wine was a beautiful match with the heavy acidity disappearing against the garlic and pasta dish.

The wine is a complex wine. At first sip you might think, "that's nice though a bit acidic." But the more you drink the more you'll come to appreciate such an unusual wine.

Daedalus does ship to Indiana. The winery made just 120 cases of the 2007 with grapes from a single vineyard. It really is something special. The price is reasonable at $21.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Delas Cotes du Ventoux Dry, Tannic Wine

I've really enjoyed some great Cotes du Rhone region wines lately and continue to look for good bargains and good recommendations for those wines or other regions close by.

I picked up a bottle of Delas Cotes du Ventoux (east bank of the Rhone river) recently and popped it open over the weekend. The wine definitely opened up some with time and for my palate was better the second day than the first.

This is a really dry Grenache/Syrah-based French wine. And the tannins were much bigger than I expected or normally find at this price point.

It had the light hints of berry and maybe some floral characteristics but just wasn't to my taste. Interesting enough, Wine Spectator gave the juice 89 points. But all that means is we don't have to agree, now do we?

This was not bad wine, just not the French Rhone that I normally really enjoy. If you like strong tannins with light fruit on the palate instead of the jammy ones, then the Delas is for you!

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Which is Hardest on Your Teeth? Red or White?

Every now and then I run across stories related to wine that I think are worth sharing. That happened today when I scanned MSNBC.com for news headlines and saw an interesting piece about wine stains and your teeth.

Here is an interesting story on that topic that might change your conventional thinking a bit.

Go onto your favorite web browser and type in "wine and teeth" and you'll get several interesting articles. For those of us who really enjoy wine and the health benefits of red wine, there is a lot of good information on how to correctly protect our teeth!

Even if you don't read the stories, the most common suggestion for good health is don't rush to brush your teeth after drinking wine. Instead, rinse with water thoroughly and brush later!

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com