March 9, 2024 - Trop big pour moi. Ça lui prend encore 20 ans. Comment font ils pour créer ce monstre?
October 28, 2020 - Served 6½ hours after opening. Smoky, sweet fruit, with coffee notes. Very smooth. So nice.
November 2, 2019 - Nose: A Palate: A- (Tasted blind)
April 23, 2017 - this bottle was concerning to me because the cork was soaked 2/3 of the way up. over 20 years old now, this showed very fresh, with some fresh fruit still present, much to my surprise. red and black cherry, smoke, hint of dried leaves, leather. long finish shows some nice acids and fully resolved tannins.
September 17, 2016 - Way past its prime. I would be drinking this right away if I had any left.
March 28, 2016 - served 1 hour after decanting. A little chalky on the first whiff, kinda dirty. Unfortunately this never went away for the rest of the evening. A little savory mineral, then showed coconut and vanilla oak. Later on more savory again with soy sauce. Very smooth on the palate. Second pour showing some cooked fruit, a little more smoky and a little leather. Unfortunately this probably suffered from some bottle shock as it was only allowed to rest for 2 days after a flight.
May 9, 2015 - SQN - Legends: The wine is clearly showing its age and has notes of earthiness and smoke but still with a solid, but mature fruit core.
It is a great pleasure to taste a SQN with some maturity to the fruit but in this case it is perhaps not the best example as it was starting to show the tendency to be a bit tired.
Still a very solid and balanced wine
September 29, 2013 - Unquestionably Sine Qua Non Syrah even at 17 years. Perfect cork with thick inky black composition. Leather, tar, black fruit, cassis, and roasted meat juice. Intensity of flavors has definitely faded with time but still something very special. Obviously, it’s time to drink up! Paired with 1.5 inch fresh cut rib eye from Lindy Grundy West Hollywood.
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September 7, 2013 - Fully mature, this requires consumption to capture the remaining ripe back raspberries, earth, smoke, espresso, pepper and wild strawberry jam notes. Lacking the body and depth of current vintages, this was a fun look back at the early years of Sine Qua Non. I'd drink this sooner than later if I had any remaining bottles.
June 8, 2012 - Sine Qua Non vertical (Carlton Restaurant, Zurich): Caramel, nice sweetness, really tons of the sticky caramel toffee that I used to eat at fairs... This fell apart after 20 minutes in the glass though, what a pity, but when it was at it's best clearly a 94 points wine