31 Oct Happy Halloween! Bogle Phantom Red
There are two types of messaging that you might be very tired of by now:
1. political commercials and
2. online articles about pairing Halloween candy with wine
Thankfully, there’s light at the end of the political ads tunnel.
Just a few more days to go.
And after today, those suggestions about how a soft, fruity Merlot is
the perfect complement to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups will
move into the background in your AI feed
not to return for another year.
But “spooky” Halloween-themed wines aren’t going anywhere.
Wines that refer to the dark side such as
Apothic, The Walking Dead, Vampire and my personal favorite,
The 17th Nail in My Cranium, gain in popularity leading up to Oct. 31.
However, unlike Spirit Halloween, those ubiquitous pop-up stores
that seem to come out of nowhere every fall,
the wines with the scary names don’t vanish on November 2nd.
They stick around all year.
It’s Wine Thursday!
Time to highlight a good wine that sells at a reasonable price and
is easy to find at your store and online.
Admittedly, there’s a good deal of Halloween-type hype
around this week’s featured wine.
It’s positioned as being “mysterious and hauntingly seductive”.
OK…sure.
But cut through the marketing and I think you’ll find
this is one of the better options
in the sub-$20 red blend category.
Where it’s from
About 15 minutes south of Sacramento and situated
on the banks of the Sacramento River,
Clarksburg, California is the home of some two dozen wineries.
Bogle Family Winery is the best known of the group.
Bogle has been producing reds, whites and red blends such as Phantom,
for over 60 years.
What it is
A combination of Petite Sirah and Zinfandel, Bogle’s Phantom
is deep, dark and full-bodied… ideal for the cooler temps
we’ll experience with the changing of the seasons.
Phantom shows a wide variety of flavors.
There’s clove, vanilla, black pepper, oak and cinnamon
all coming together to form a spicy, smoky red.
Two tips to help Phantom reach its potential.
Air it out. Pop the cork 15 minutes before serving.
And give it a chill…a few moments in the fridge to
cool it down from room temperature.
Served warm, Phantom could be syrupy and sluggish.
Served slightly chilled, it will be a tasty pairing with BBQ ribs.
Where to find it
Total Wine has Bogle’s Phantom for $12.97. It’s at Walmart for $16.98.
Safeway’s price is $16.99. It’s $17.99 at Fred Meyer, Target and QFC.
You’ll find it at Ralphs for $18.00. Albertsons has it for $18.99.
You can order Phantom from Gary’s Liquors for $13.97
Stirling Fine Wines has it for $13.99.
https://www.stirlingfinewine.com/
B-21’s price is $15.98
Woods Wholesale sells it for $15.99