Next of Kyn

See Ken Vastola's cool page on these wines - Read more about Next of Kyn and Sine Qua Non

First the news: A new baby is born. A wine baby that is.
It is called
nextof kyn
The name is in reference to the fact that it is the next closest relative to SINE QUA NON, yet it is separate and different, and with its own personality, character and style.
Implied is also a dose of hopefulness, of wishful thinking, that one of our five kids will someday take it over as his or her own.

As you likely know, the fruit for the wines made under the SINE QUA NON banner comes from various vineyard sources. At this point most of it from our own Estate vineyard in the cool Santa Rita Hills called Eleven Confessions, plus we still have a couple of long time non-Estate vineyards under contract, such as the equally cool Bien Nacido vineyard and the somewhat warmer, but just as terrific White Hawk vineyard.
In 2004 we decided to plant a small six acre vineyard at our "home ranch" in Oak View. It is the plot of dirt where we also live. I am sure it does not come as a huge surprise when I tell you that what we planted there is Syrah, Grenache and a tiny bit of Roussanne. We just continue to have a deep fondness for these Rhone varieties. Both the soil and the climate - the "terroir" if you prefer - are rather different here at the CUMULUS home vineyard than at Eleven Confessions or any of the other vineyard sites we work with. The climate is decidedly warmer and the soil, although with plenty of clay-loam, has significant amounts of limestone, which we do not have at any of the other sites. Our vine spacing here is even tighter than at Eleven Confessions - 5 ½ ft. X 2 ft. - resulting in a whopping 3,960 vines per acre or 9,785 vines per hectare...for you Francophiles. Not that this ultimately means a heck of a lot. Great wines have been made the world over from vineyards spaced in countless different configurations. But I thought I'll throw it out there anyway, since it does make farming much more difficult. Maybe I am just shamelessly groping for a friendly nod, and acknowledgement of the effort, with that info.

We picked a little bit of fruit in 2006 - that's called "third leaf" in grower jargon - just to see what we have here, but our first "real" harvest was 2007.
We immediately recognized that this fruit had very much its own distinct identity.
As the wines matured in the cellar we became more and more convinced that at least some portions of it should be kept separate from everything else that was comfortably resting in the old Garage d'Or.
And that's what we did. We kept a few barrels to themselves, mostly used ~ 2 year old barriques ~ so as to set a base line and be able to more purely evaluate the fruit and the wine itself.
The wine evolved rather slowly, but we loved what we tasted...more and more so the older it got. And at some point we concluded that this wine ~ and perhaps this "home vineyard" CUMULUS ~ should really have its very own, distinct and unique identity.
And so an entirely new label, an entirely new brand was born. Yes, undoubtedly there is a real family resemblance to SINE QUA NON, but the wine stands alone...and will likely even more so in the future. And so that new brand, that new "baby" as I referred to it above is called: nextof kyn

Edit producer information

Group wines by:

• Wine Name
• Variety
• Vineyard
• Vintage

wine type	Name, Type, Locale	Year
Red	Next of Kyn Collectors Case (3x Syrah, 1x Touriga) Red, USA, California, Napa Valley	2021 2020 2019 2017 NV
Red	Next of Kyn No~4 Cumulus Vineyard Red, USA, California, Central Coast	2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007
Red	Next of Kyn Touriga Nacional Número Um Red, USA, California, Central Coast	2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015