Ginger Wine Ninjas

By Kaitlin Ohlinger

The story of three redheads and one little Pinot Noir

Sit down and let me tell you the tale of three ultra-cool wine people who all reside in Columbia, SC. Chances are if you live in Columbia, you’ve at some point been to either The Gourmet Shop, Cellar on Greene or Morganelli’s (hopefully all three). One retail wine shop with a slammin’ cafe, one wine bar with a small but mighty wine shop, and one independent wine, beer & liquor store. Had you noticed that at each of these wonderful wine establishments, there is a redhead at the helm? I am by no means a statistics expert, but the probability of this occurring in a medium-sized city such as ours seems very unlikely.

But it’s entirely true. And not so long ago, someone besides us thought it was pretty cool. Cool enough, in fact, to offer to bottle us a special wine label. You see, the three of us- Bryan Della Volpe, James Alford, and myself- had been referring to ourselves as the Ginger Wine Ninjas in an unofficial capacity for some time, just for fun. A certain character who worked for Walnut City Wineworks in the Willamette Valley happened to meet two out of the three Ninjas at a trade event in February. He was quite tickled about all these fantastic redheads who sold wine, and claimed he wanted to bottle a wine for us. These two Ninjas definitely had purple teeth by this point in the day, and were needless to say very enthusiastic about the idea.

Numbers were exchanged. There were numerous text messages. Then nothing for a while. The Ninjas waited. Then one day up pops an email: “Here are the Ginger Ninja ideas… have them pick a favorite.” What??! This little pipe dream, born out of a wine-sodden afternoon in Charleston was coming to pass? We couldn’t have been more excited. Even more, the graphic design was fantastic. Ginger Wine Ninjas was now officially a wine baby; our baby. And like eager first time parents, we stared, doe-eyed, at the ultrasound… err… label design… for several months while we waited for the wine to be bottled and registered.

Finally the day came! We had tasted the wine previously, but it had been some time so we were anxious for our first re-taste. The good news? It’s fantastic! And not even in a “everyone thinks their own baby is the cutest” kind of way. 2012 was a year in Oregon that produced Pinots of phenomenal fruit content, so this wine is a real charmer. Lovely tones of red raspberry, strawberry and red cherry are woven in with a stitch of tannin, a touch of spice, and a pop of acidity. All three of us agree, subjectively of course, that you’d be hard-pressed to find a more delicious, friendly bottle of Willamette Pinot Noir for a mere $20 of your hard earned dollars. This is an everyday sipper perfect for these lovely cool evenings we’re poised to enjoy. Even better? This wine is a Columbia, SC exclusive! You know those cool kids in Charleston who are forever making us feel like the inferior younger sibling? Well, you have something they don’t have! It’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but we hope to make you proud, Columbia. Swing by to pick up a bottle from your favorite Ninja soon! Or, all things being fair and equitable, one bottle from each Ninja. It’s that good!