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2005
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| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 97.4 pts. and median of 97 pts. in 90 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Matt Scott on 3/25/2024 & rated 100 points: Absolute perfection. Decanted for three hours. Very Côte Rotie with smoked meat, black pepper and blueberry capote; along with brown spices and slight lilacs. Tertiary nuances abound, and nay a hard edge. The body is full and yet very agile at the same time. Finishes exceptionally long and is a very masculine Syrah from start to finish. A very complete and round middle palate, with slight silky tannins. Black as night, with a gorgeous garnet rim. Up there with Stockholm Syndrome (2010) and the 2019 Eleven Confessions, which were also perfect to my senses. This will evolve for many years, yet will not improve. If you have this, no harm in opening a bottle now…then study for many a year. Drink now -. (385 views) | | | Tasted by Triforwine on 1/21/2023 & rated 97 points: This was a taste offered by a friend. I don't have much experience with Syrah, especially new world with some age. This is simply a massive wine. Dark color. Nose erupts from the glass with dense dark fruit and spice a little smoke and the flavors are huge chocolate covered blackberry in a stone glass. Amazingly opulent but soft mouthfeel. Finish almost endless. 97+ easy. (1701 views) | | | Tasted by BROpus One on 7/12/2021 & rated 99 points: Still drinking very well and still the best SQN I've had. (3012 views) | | | Tasted by wineguy75 on 5/7/2021 & rated 95 points: 5 hour decant. Drank blind vs. 2002 Grange & beat by Grange. Different than other younger SQN's i've had. Less viscous & smooth, more Cote Rotie & Rocks characteristics. Not worth the price point and I enjoy other younger SQNs more. (2872 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 10/28/2020 & rated 96 points: Served 4½ hours after opening. Really ripe and jammy, with metallic notes. A really big wine. (2061 views) | | | Tasted by peternelson on 1/31/2020: Too big, creamy and chewy for my palate. Didn't take notes and don't remember much, unfortunately. Heritage Wine Blind Tasting Finals after-party at Jean-George Las Vegas (4371 views) | | | Tasted by ews3 on 12/25/2019 & rated 98 points: What better wine to open for Christmas? This continues to shine, still so youthful. Some black olive notes showing on nose. Great peppery profile with dark fruit notes — blackberry, black cherry. The herbal character on this adds interest. So intense, it is unreal this is almost 15 years old now. My last bottle, but hope not my last chance to taste this spectacular wine. (3329 views) | | | Tasted by dcwino on 10/18/2019 & rated 96 points: Annual Chicago winos visit - Champagne, White Burg, DRC, La La and SQN (Officina - Washington D.C.): Still impenetrable color. Incredibly youthful expressive nose displaying intense jammy black fruit, blackberry jam, crème de cassis, lavender, strong licorice, liquid smoke, ink, coffee ice cream, sweet spices and earth. Unbelievable concentration, layers upon layers of explosive jammy black fruit, unctuous and deeply toned yet silky and polished, good acidity, earthy mineral and an incredibly long black fruit driven finish with ink and licorice at the end. Once again, this wine will outlive all of us. (3755 views) | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 10/18/2019 & rated 95 points: Lots of ripe black plum, cherry and berry with sweet spice. Very good concentration, power and complexity, just not quite as balanced or elegant as the Naked Truth in the next glass. (3149 views) | | | Tasted by SlimShaney on 7/7/2019 & rated 97 points: 97. Dark, rich and brooding. Primary and super powerful. Finish with a definite note of Rhone.
Drank when moving into my mansion though rather than celebrating, it quite literally felt like the 17th nail, having endured at least a dozen this month, the worst of my life. I keep thinking of a Jim Carroll poem where he says "I love this mansion though it has too many windows ... to open half way each morning... to close half way each night". (2772 views) | | | Tasted by mattiasjansson on 5/14/2019 & rated 100 points: Acker SQN Dinner (NoMad Rooftop): Wow! I cannot describe how much I love this wine. (2443 views) | | | Tasted by KenK on 5/14/2019 & rated 98 points: SQN free-for-all Nomad. Once again proving out as my favorite SQN of all time. Rich, ripe, smooth, seduction. Pure dense lush wine that is a guilty pleasure of epic proportions. A hedonistic wine that also has wonderful balance, length and a sophisticated edge. Simply outstanding. (2177 views) | | | Tasted by tacman on 3/21/2019 & rated 99 points: crazy good ... rich, hint of cassis sweetness w/ a bit of graphite and tar ... give me more (2184 views) | | | Tasted by Topper on 2/15/2019 & rated 97 points: Drank on my birthday this year. Nothing to add that hasn't been said by others. Superb winemaking on display. (2251 views) | | | Tasted by Naplesgolfer on 11/24/2018 & rated 96 points: lovely balanced wine. Very unique taste fir SQN. (2060 views) | | | Tasted by Christoffer78 on 11/16/2018 & rated 100 points: Wow - this beauty is pure proof Sine Qua Nons are in it for the looooong haul. The 2005 17th Nail In My Head is massive, yet elegant and plays on so many strings it sounds like a full orchestra. The wine comes across as "youngish" but of course shows some sign of age too - after about 19 years in bottles. The nose offers up rich creamy fruit full of profound velvety berries - after almost 15 years! After that a crescendo of lovely cacao, sweet licorice, mint, flowers and saddle leather emerge. As usual with SQN, I personally think nothing over the top . Everything is just remarkably well balanced but still massive and dominantly elegant. As expected, there is not a hard edge to be found. Thick deep velvet is the best way to describe the the whole experience. Everything is in place and I see no reason this wine should not keep for many years to come. Perhaps needless to say, the length on the finish just goes on and on. No flaws found = perfect score! Bravo! (1754 views) | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 10/6/2018 & rated 96 points: DC/Chicago Wine Dinner Extravaganza (Rosewood Hotel Dining Room - Washington DC): Incredibly rich and concentrated black berries and plum, with cloves, black pepper and espresso. Intense and powerful, but this manages to retain exceptional balance. Wonderful now, and no signs of any decline. (3468 views) | | | Tasted by dcwino on 10/6/2018 & rated 97 points: Annual Chicago winos visit - Champagne, DRC, Yquem, SQN and etc. (The Grill Room at the Rosewood DC): Expressive nose displaying intense jammy black fruit, blackberry liqueur, liquid smoke, anise, ink, dark milk chocolate, caramel, sweet spices, a hint of black pepper and earth. Exceptional concentration, layers upon layers of intense black fruit, unctuous yet silky, perfect amount of acidity and mineral, and an incredibly long opulent black fruit and sweet spices driven finish. Pretty much a sensory overload. It hasn’t budged much and remains incredibly youthful. This can easily last another fifty years or more. It will be fascinating to drink in another decade. It is certainly a very divisive wine. If you are a SQN fanatic, your score will be even higher. (2729 views) | | | Tasted by Jeff Leve on 9/30/2017 & rated 100 points: Is this the best wine ever produced from Sine Qua Non? Perhaps. At the minimum, it's certainly a candidate for consideration, and for good reason. There is so much intensity and concentration here, yet the wine is balanced, fresh and in harmony. Thick, dense, polished, packed and stacked with layers of black and blue fruit, jam, black cherry liqueur, campfire smoke, licorice and dark chocolate, made from 100% pure cocoa, the wine coats your palate, teeth and gums. The finish breaks the 60 second mark! (6728 views) | | | Tasted by Papies on 5/27/2017 & rated 99 points: The Athens Wine Event to put all the others to shame (Paleo Reastaurant, Piraeus): Tasted blind and followed a line up of superb wines ( see link). However it shown, it sang and was an instant topic of conversation. We guessed mid 2000s Napa Syrah and although went back n forth if this was Alban/SQN/Saxum the delicate side of it made us choose SQN. We guessed this was a non EBA though..
SQNs can be a hit or a miss but in cases like this it's a clear hit. It had what we usually like in SQNs an elevated balance, everything is amplified but unlike lessens Napa cousins everything here is elevated and thus in tune which makes the wine elegant in its OTT. Very good density of fruit, nice acidity, well assimilated oak ( had 38 month of it too...) and just in perfect harmony. The wine is big but not heavy and the nose of it is a mesmerising experience. Andreas 100 / Nicol 98 (5551 views) | | | Tasted by dcwino on 5/25/2017 & rated 94 points: Bad boy wine night - mostly high octane wines with a surprise or two. (The Grill Room at Rosewood DC): Wine 6 - There is a hint of pepper. Very ripe nose displaying jammy black fruit, blackberry jam, caramel, strong mint, milk chocolate and dark spices. Incredible concentration, opulent jammy black fruit and caramel driven palate impression, thick and oily, nicely layered and a long finish with a hint of alcohol at the end. The blind tasting is tricky as I am thinking there can’t be more than one Syrah. Strong mint makes me to guess as a high end Malbec! (4953 views) | | | Tasted by Kemo Sabe on 2/26/2017 & rated 97 points: First time trying the 17th Nail and it did not disappoint. Utterly insane texture. So, so smooth. Booming nose and flavors. Black fruit, violets, lavender, kirsch, spice/pepper, minerals. I can go on and on. Decanted for a 3 hours and it was just singing all night. (4306 views) | | | Tasted by G_H on 2/6/2016 & rated 98 points: An insane wine with a texture that is absolutely to-die-for. Slightly salty, cherries, sour cherries. Really nice sweet-sour-salt play here. Just amazing! (6560 views) | | | Tasted by LongViewCellars on 12/3/2015 & rated 99 points: Just about flawless. (4973 views) | | | Tasted by dcwino on 10/1/2015 & rated 96 points: Annual Chicago winos visit - Dugat Py Chambertins, DRC RSVs, SQN and etc. (The Grill Room at Capella Hotel Georgetown): Expressive mature domestic Syrah nose displaying blueberry jam, blueberry liqueur, milke chocolate, medium caramel, a hint of black pepper, nutmeg and other sweet spices and earth. Incredibly concentration, 10W40 without being cloying, perfect amount of acidity, opulent incredibly layered fruit masks the tannins and incredibly long sweet finish. Really big scale mature Syrah with very good balance. (5582 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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