Any music lover knows these words - “All I’ve got is a red guitar - three chords and the truth.” The legendary words of Bob Dylan’s All along the Watchtower were made famous by Jimi Hendrix and in later years covered by many other artists..
I have been playing (torturing) guitar for a long time - and yes, it is Red. A 1992 Fender Stratocaster so in honor of my very own special baby parked in front of the amplifier, we are celebrating with a Red Guitar 2005 Tempranillo from Spain. Spain lays claim to the modern day 6 string guitar. Could you imagine life with only wine and no guitars? I guess that is better than guitars and no wine!
My first guitar was the basic acoustic that my mom bought me for Christmas. However, my second guitar has a questionable past that I can’t get it to talk about. Years ago when Trixie and I were in college, we would clean apartments in our complex as people moved out during the beginning of the school year. There was one unit in particular, the “noisy” one down on the end that always had people’s attention. The person that lived here did not seem to want to move out and it was the last day August 31 - D-day. That evening he was still in there - we think. There was some seriously loud music coming from inside. The next morning, September 1st we went upstairs, knocked on the door - no answer. Was this guy alive? The door was unlocked so we cautiously opened it yelling Hello. As we gazed around the room, it looked like he had not take the trash out all year. The key was on the counter but we had to wade across a toxic waste dump to get to it. We were thinking the EPA was going to show up at any moment.
Walking around the dump, I saw an acoustic guitar propped up against the closet door. It had a great sound and apparently it was now an orphan - being abandoned in the middle of the night. Hey I could give this a good home. Trixie and I opened the closet to look inside. We were surprised to see it lined with aluminum foil and about 6 inches of dirt laying on the floor. Trixie asked “what was all this - he must have been a real pig!” This was the first time I had seen anything like this but I told her, “I think he was into indoor agriculture.” The ever naive Trixie said “So do you think he was a horticulture student and got an “A” on his class project?” I just smiled and said - I don’t think so. To this day I still have the guitar. It sits here near my laptop at Vintage Tuesday’s world headquarters.
The Red Guitar 2005 Tempranillo has a bit of a fruit and cherry taste with a hint of spice. A great ruby color and a warm comfortable finish. It makes a good reasonably priced wine that would go great with a hearty beef dish. ….or just have it by itself with the hum of the amplifiers and the scream of the guitar.
Here’s to Jimi, Bob, Eric and all the other legendary and not so legendary guitar players of the world. And…. here’s to my Red Guitar
Cheers and Keep on Rockin!
Angus
