Red Wine and Ginger Syrup (with poached pears)

Rich dark syrup with a strong wine flavor and a hint of ginger and spice.  Goes wonderful with pears.

Recipe:
1 bottle red wine (this is what your syrup will taste like, so use one you enjoy)
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh ginger, sliced
1/2 cup water
2-4 tsp ground white pepper

Boil the water with the ginger in it, after five minutes add wine, sugar and pepper and reduce heat.  Simmer until it is a medium-thin syrup, it will thicken quite a bit as it cools.  Strain out ginger.  It's done now.  Use it warm or at room temperature.

Variation with pears:

Increase water to 2 1/2 cups, add all ingredients to pot at once and also add a few peeled pears (I used the Bosc variety).  Simmer for about half an hour, turn the pears over a few times while it is simmering so they cook evenly and get pretty colored.  Remove pears.  Let the remaining liquid turn to syrup.  Remove from heat, strain out ginger.  Serve the pears with the syrup.  I like whipped cream on it.

Uses:
Over waffles (especially good with my new recipe coming soon - spicy nut waffles)
On yogurt for breakfast (good with the greek yogurt, feels like dessert for breakfast!)
In drinks (I like it in sparkling water)
As a drizzle on a plate (very pretty with a slice of chocolate cake)

And whatever else you can think of!