Way back in the past – to celebrate our 30th birthday, we started a ‘tradition’ of yearly parties on our birthday – you see, both of us celebrate our birthday on the same day.  That’s right. Same day. Same year.  Two different parts of the country (urban legend has it that Jean is more or less an hour older than Brian – but not a proven fact – more than likely we were born at the same time).  So, the Bash was started on our 30th with a keg of beer, some bratwurst on the grill and friends bringing their favorite side dish.  For the next ten years, we celebrated with our annual Bash – now in between there were two children born, a major flooding event, the addition of  another dog to the family, a rebuilt  deck, a new house with new neighbors and another new grill.  The one constant was beer.  When you live in St. Louis beer is a way of life – and there’s no complaining here . .  . we knew that Budweiser with born on dating of last week was about as fresh as it’s going to get!

The chink in the armor happened in that magical year.  You know–the BIG ONE!  The Big 40!  Yep, this was the year someone, in the neighborhood, brought wine.  Now, we will stand here until it snows in Aransas Pass, Texas on Christmas that we didn’t let the wine touch our lips, but friends (or so we thought) actually gave us wine as birthday presents.  We know, we know, it’s almost blaspheme!  Now, all kidding aside, this was probably the turning point for us; it’s not that we don’t like or care for beer, but there was an allure that wine provided, but the catch was that we had to actually taste it.  Oh, sure, we’d previously enjoyed those luscious German white wines, and we’d even had a bottle or two of the ultimate training wine – White Zinfandel, but now we were talking red wine . . . Merlot!  Can you feel it – yeah, we can too, the ground under your feet is shaking, right?  Seriously, it was probably the turning point in our journey to wine enjoyment.  We’re pretty sure it was something like Turning Leaf Merlot . . . kind of forgettable.

So what is it about the number 40?  Why do we put such emphasis on it?  Why does it have such a mesmerizing effect on us?  Did you know that FORTY is the only number whose letters are in alphabetical order?  Did you know that the chemical element, Zirconium  has an atomic number of 40?  Did you know that in 40 AD, Philo taught that all men are born free?  Let’s not forget the 40 days of Lent, 40 years of Moses wandering in the desert – and here’s a really cool fact . . . if you add the ages of daughter #1 and daughter #2 together they equal 40!!!!  Must admit that magic 8 ball trick came from a co-worker of Jean’s . . .shoutout to Ned.  Oh, and one more shoutout to Scott who hits the BIG 40 next Friday!

So guess we are a little caught up in the fact that tonight is our 40th blog and our 40th DIFFERENT bottle of wine!  Yes, we know, we’ve got a LONG way to go, but we’re pretty excited to be talking about our 40th tasting!  And we chose one of our favorites for our 40th tasting, tonight’s wine is a 2009 Joel Gott Zinfandel.  Because of our previously mentioned tastings with our friends at Grape Juice in Kerrville, we learned to love Joel Gott Zinfandel going back to the 2005 vintage.  This is some really good wine for under $15 a bottle and has become widely available at wine shops, high volume grocery stores, including  Whole Foods.  It’s appropriate that we enjoy this wine on our 40th blog because on our very first blog back on the first of September, we talked about a Joel Gott Sauvignon Blanc.  Anyway . . .

In true Zinfandel fashion, it’s got lots of fruit, lots of spice and a great pepper finish – it’s not overpowering but it’s got a real nice vanilla and tobacco nose.  The finish is smooth and while not overpowering, lingers just long enough for you to appreciate the flavors.  The wine is perfect for a Friday night on the deck or when a group of co-workers comes over to the house after work!  It isn’t too pretentious, but it has solid structure and a good finish.  We enjoyed with what could best be defined as a “kitchen sink” pizza – had to clean out the fridge because we will soon be on the road (ah, do we sense a story in the making?).

So, as we recognize and ‘celebrate’ our 40th posting, we raise a glass of Joel Gott Zinfandel, and hope that you’ll enjoy a glass of your favorite wine.  We’ll be back here tomorrow with another wine as we prepare to take our blog on the road. . .more on that later.

Please remember to enjoy your wine responsibly and recycle whenever possible!