From the Giant Wine Company out in Woodinville, comes this pre Christmas Wine of the Week.  Liz and I are sitting around cranking out Christmas cards, listening to the Rat Pack Christmas and drinking down this fine bottle of wine. 

We first heard  about the Giant Wine Company from the Mark Ryan mailing list that we signed up for earlier this year. This wine is damn good, and I can tell that it has a good story - even if I’m sure I don’t know any of the story - sometime a sense of mystery is all that I need to pick up a bottle.  These guys: Chris Gorman and Mark Ryan McNeilly are not the ghosts, getting high acclaims across the board as two of the up and coming wine makers in Washington.  They were #28 and #29 on the recent Seattle Times Top 100 Washington Wines of the Year list - a good read. I’ve tried a few of Mark Ryan wines and met him in person, and have been generally impressed by his gregarious nature, great Bordeaux style blends he’s crafting, and playful wine names: Dead Horse and Long Haul. 

What I think of this ghostly Syrah: I smell a lot of cherry and tobacco spicyness out of the glass before drinking this easy going young red wine with a nice balance leaning toward the dry side of the spectrum.  We enjoyed this wine with a tri tip steak (sliced thin) and la spada potato dinner and found it great with the red meat.  It was also enjoyable after dinner with a little bit of chocolate, which further brought out the cinnamonny spicyness.  mmm. buy it at Fine Wine and Cigars at Redmond Town Centre for $12 or so.