Sometimes a wine doesn’t need to reach greatness to be memorable, and this is what happened with me and the Ghost of 413.
The wine (this one from the 2010 vintage) is a blend of mostly Syrah and a hint (2%) of Cabernet Sauvignon, the grapes coming from Columbia Valley, and made the Giant Wine Co. in Washington State.
It was the branding that initially got me as it sometimes does: a cool name, a producer that had had some mystique with me (Giant Wine Co. is a collaboration of Chris Gorman of Gorman Winery and Mark Ryan McNielly of Mark Ryan Winery) of Woodinville, Washington (a stone’s throw from Seattle), and the intial experience was positive enough, a fruit-driven Syrah with plush tannins that had good staying power through the first hour, and then something happened.
It opened up in that way any wine lover who’s been around long enough knows; finally with having gotten enough air, something is released, and the mundane just became interesting. It doesn’t always hang around long either, though with the ghost here, it lasted through to the bottom of the bottle. Like enjoying a quiet evening, and then suddenly there’s a shooting star. You didn’t expect it, and that’s what makes it so great. And what was it? Something softer, sweeter even, but really nothing like I’d ever whiffed in a red before.
I had trouble pinning it down myself amidst the blackberries and cola notes, but there it was: meringue. Sort of toasty, sort of sweet in that way that only fresh-baked meringue is. A little wow moment. This is why I love wine, it never ceases to surprise me, and does so sometimes at the most unpredictable moment.