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2014
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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 95.3 pts. and median of 95 pts. in 126 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Mbad77 on 12/23/2023 & rated 94 points: Still young and developing. The alcohol does t really come through which makes it a good SQN though you feel it a half bottle onwards
Great drive and acidity (1588 views) | | | Tasted by Acohen on 11/18/2023 & rated 97 points: Cassis, kir, pepper and meat that evolved and kept getting better (1598 views) | | | Tasted by sh6k on 11/5/2023 & rated 98 points: Super dense blueberries and pepper and meat and deep deep purple. Smooth tannins. Enough acidity to keep it from being heavy (though did I mention dense). Everything in enough balance that it actually has a surprising finesse for something so dense. Goes with food without totally overpowering it. Decanted for and hour and then drank over a few hours during which time it basically didn’t change. (1982 views) | | | Tasted by civilmatt on 8/15/2023 & rated 97 points: Stunning wine, opened for 6 hours, no decant. Paired with Wagyu striploin. (2378 views) | | | Tasted by markcic on 6/18/2023 & rated 95 points: Opened three hours in advance of our Father's Day dinner. Dark fruit, plums, tobacco, hints of chocolate, the flavor of molasses come through in the deep rich wine with a very long finish. A really great bottle of wine. (2731 views) | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 3/24/2023 & rated 94 points: Sweet black fruit with sweet baking spice, this comes across as rich and powerful, Kurt
Somehow still humble with nothing ostentatious. Seamless and long finish. (3380 views) | | | Tasted by llindahl on 2/5/2023 & rated 95 points: Huge wine. Massive amount of blackcurrant on the nose. Absolutely lovely (2491 views) | | | Tasted by Vino Me on 11/16/2022 & rated 93 points: 2nd time I have had this wine. Not decanted. No formal notes. 93 points. (3182 views) | | | Tasted by AllRed on 11/11/2022: A late addition to the lineup, courtesy of VM, popped and poured. Deep inky color. Black fruit, pepper and roasted game qualities. Full-bodied and still rather firm. As I say every time I taste an SQN, these are not wines I would want to drink every day (even if I could afford such a proposition), but they definitely scratch a certain itch that comes up a few times a year. In this style, I've found no equal. (2757 views) | | | Tasted by peternelson on 7/24/2022 & rated 91 points: Super concentrated syrah; gobs of pure black and blue fruit. the only thing I can say is it was much better than the two Grenaches. Addendum to the DD Rose Champagnes blind at Grand Harbor. (3411 views) | | | Tasted by Cailles on 4/24/2022 & rated 95 points: No detailed notes taken. Tasted blind. This has such a dark soul with smoke, ash, smoked meeat wrapped around a deep, ripe, black fruit core. Very intense nose, superbly precise. On the palate the same incredible intensity, with the same aromas with even more meaty notes, spices, minty freshness. Extremly high precision. A wall of ultra fine tannins, high acidity, super creaminess yet so weightless. Wow. This is super balanced and round, yet a monster. In 20 years this could be great, it handels the intensity and alcohol very well and has the freshness to have a long life. I had other SQNs which had just too much of everything (in their youth) but this seems to be still on the good side of things (but still, don't bring this to a Northern Rhone dinner). 95/96 pts (4214 views) | | | Tasted by sirpat00 on 4/9/2022 & rated 97 points: Double-decanted for 30mins, but best to go 1-2h or more. Pitch-black cherry, brambleberry confit, smoked dried meat and leather. Then more meat, bacon fat, black olives and coal, occasionally softened up by a fine layer of vanillin and hints of eucalyptus. Concentrated palate, densely packed with more dark berries and plum. Super-soft tannins provide for a weightlessness despite the powerful structure. This reminded me of a less bulky version of the Bionic Frog. Really loved it. (3782 views) | | | Tasted by RMundell on 3/19/2022 & rated 97 points: Drinking really well. Just a beautiful wine. (3409 views) | | | Tasted by WildeMeeuw on 11/19/2021 & rated 100 points: Kleur: Diep ondoordringbaar robijnrood Aroma / bouquet: Opvallend fris en fruitig bouquet. Het donkere fruit is nog behoorlijk 'ingepakt' en ‘compact’, nog weinig individuele smaaknuances waarneembaar. Smaak / Afdronk: Ook in de mond opvallend fris. Frisse zuurgraad, krachtige tannines met een prettige bite, opvallend zachte wijn. Algemeen / potentieel: Qua karakter een totaal andere wijn. Frisser. Jongste wijn van de line-up van vanavond. Voor zover deze wijn nu nog niet volmaakt is, is dat een kwestie van leeftijd. 50 + Kleur: 5 + Aroma / bouquet: 15 + Smaak / Afdronk: 20 + Algemeen / potentieel: 10 = 100/100
Colour: Deep impenetrable ruby red Aroma / bouquet: Striking fresh and fruity bouquet. The dark fruit is still quite 'packed' and 'compact', with few individual taste nuances perceptible. Taste / Aftertaste: Also remarkably fresh in the mouth. Fresh acidity, strong tannins with a pleasant bite, remarkably soft wine. General / potential: A completely different wine in character. fresher. Youngest wine of tonight's lineup. Insofar as this wine is not yet perfect, it is a matter of age. 50 + Colour: 5 + Aroma / Bouquet: 15 + Taste / Aftertaste: 20 + General / Potential: 10 = 100/100 (4295 views) | | | Tasted by acyso on 10/24/2021 & rated 85 points: "Baby are you okay? You've barely touched your Char-spookerie." (Chicago, IL): Served double blind. Immediately identified as SQN (though admittedly I saw the wax top and felt the incredibly heavy bottle). Anyway, this is exactly what you expect. There's nothing subtle about it. Big in every way -- the bottle, the oak, the fruit. More drinkable than I would expect, the biggest impediment to my actually enjoying this is the horribly bitter and oaky finish which is mostly (and mercifully) overwhelmed by the port-like fruit. (4735 views) | | | Tasted by cadamson on 9/12/2021: Same as previous four bottles, aging at a glacial pace. Quite delicious, had with A5 wagyu, did not overwhelm, in fact went surprisingly well. Quite enjoyable. (3824 views) | | | Tasted by Rosengoo on 8/10/2021 & rated 96 points: This clear and deep burgundy wine was poured without decanting. It had a nose of dark cherries and some toast. In the glass was a lovely balanced wine with flavours of cherries, black currant, toast and some very light pepper. Both the tannins and acidity were weaker than expected but perfect for my liking.
Usually, SQN bottles need many hours of decanting to show their full potential but not tonight. This wine was outstanding from the first pour to the last drop. (4260 views) | | | Tasted by Geoff on 4/27/2021 & rated 96 points: Explosive dark fruit, smooth mouthfeel yet stout tannins, mild green notes. Mouth coating and almost unctuous. Delicious wine. (4604 views) | | | Tasted by vetty on 4/11/2021 & rated 92 points: Decanted 7 hours prior to serving. purple blue color, a little bit darker than the 16 Ratsel. the nose is as beautiful as always with more spice than the 16 Ratsel. a little bit lack of acidity considering such a full body and high tanning palate. finish is not as good as the nose. After decanting for 8 hrs, it showed more changes, but the bottle was finished. (3930 views) | | | Tasted by VoteferPedro on 3/27/2021 & rated 93 points: Stood up for a week prior to decanting
Decanted 4-5 hours prior to serving.
At decant it was inky purple and had lush berry nose.
I had to hold back about 3/4 of a glass that had dense but superfine suspended tannins (tasted tart and clipped)
At the time of service this was ready. It has some green herb like mint and spicy lavender and berry and on the palate was full and lush with a fairly long clean finish.
This was tasted alongside the '02 Just For the love of it and amazingly these wines tasted nearly identical but for me the main difference visually and texturally on the tongue was that Waterdance is just more dense
Resuming wine-nights with my buddies
Special evening al fresco with chicken tikka (3793 views) | | | Tasted by bubbachumps on 1/22/2021 & rated 98 points: Notes of blackberry, graphite, boysenberry, minerals, chocolate covered raspberries and espresso on the nose. Enormously complex and layered wine, there is so much fruit but it maintains fantastic polish. The scale is massive but Manfred has an amazing skill of deliveringing that scale in such proportion. Layers of flavor carry across the palate like waves. An amazing wine, that should get better (4543 views) | | | Tasted by KenK on 12/22/2020 & rated 92 points: Started out a bit disjointed showing bright acidity followed by syrupy rich fruits in weird way, but in time began to integrate & became much more enjoyable. (4400 views) | | | Tasted by N.Bonaparte on 12/9/2020 & rated 94 points: Solid! 2 hour decant which helped mellow this out. A full bodied, well balanced and complete wine. I don’t see the point in holding these although they will hold for a decade. The fun is in the massive, multi layered fruit kaleidoscope. Yes! (4173 views) | | | Tasted by eschuldt on 11/7/2020 & rated 93 points: Too peppery for my tastes. Perhaps better in time. (4236 views) | | | Tasted by cadamson on 10/22/2020: Really has improved since my 4/15/2018 note. Makes you stand up and take notice. Very peppery and spice, good spine to match the richness and, of course, incredibly tasty fruit. (4571 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Sine Qua Non Producer website
Ken Vastola's cool Sine Qua Non pages.
An Interview of Manfred Krankl - PodcastSyrah Varietal article (Wikipedia) | (Wines Northwest)
Note that some producers in the Northern Rhone distinguish between simply Syrah and "Serine", the latter described as ‘an ancient clone of Syrah, the berries of which are more oval-shaped and less deeply pigmented than Syrah’ by producer Tardieu-Laurent. USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Central Coasthttp://www.ccwinegrowers.org/links.html
http://www.discovercaliforniawines.com/regional-wine-organizations/
http://beveragetradenetwork.com/en/btn-academy/list-of-winegrowers-association-in-central-coast-california-274.htm
Central Coast AVA Wikipedia |
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