Just outstanding. Brought to a wine dinner by a generous friend.
Incredible nose of blood, iron, cured meat, game. Palate had tons of structure and minerality with iron earth overlaying savory fruit. Finish shows off some power and the structure again.
This should go another 20-30 years without problem. Pretty remarkable.
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Tonight, this bottle was outstanding. Drank with minimal decanting, this wine was clear and deep red in colour with a nose of dark berries and some graphite. In the glass were flavours of dark fruits mixed with some ripe cherries and a noticeable amount of spices. Both the tannins and acidity were at a balanced level. Finally, each sip of this had an exceptionally long finish!
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This was an exceptional wine. Clear and incredibly deep inky purple in colour with a nose of ripe cherries and some pepper. In the glass were those same ripe cherries alongside white pepper and some vegetal notes. The tannins and acidity were not heavy at all in very balanced. You would never know that this wine is almost 16% in alcohol. One of my wines of the year so far.
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I had high expectations for this bottle. This is an excellent and even impressive Syrah, but is it worth the price? I don't think so. The nose is not very intense, with beautiful aromas of cherries, blueberries, leather and spices. The mouthfeel is impressive on the palate. Showing perfect balance and a long finish. Enjoy now or hold for another 5-10 years.
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very deep purple red color, on the nose a grand spiciness with black fruits pushed to the limit, roasted blackberries, on the palate jammy blackberry fruit, a little bit of heat but with minimal impact given the grand scale of the wine itself, cherry liqueur, great long finish with soy and herbal notes, this is a big boy even by SQN standards with all the unique wonder and carefree wildness I love about this winemaker.
****, showing well now and no end in sight
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Fun to taste the SQN 09,10,11 in a flight. Close call and only the Stockholm Syndrome had a point advantage of the others. So balanced to drink now but will improve even further - all three
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To celebrate my 7,500th wine review on Vivino, here is a hundred point wine from Santa Rita Hills.
Dark inky in color with a short purple rim.
On the nose black cherries, blackberries, tobacco, chocolates, light vanilla, cedar and black pepper.
Full bodied and soft, with medium acidity.
Dry and fruity on the palate with blackberries, black plums, cooked cherries, cedar, vanilla, spices, chocolates, tobacco, herbs and peppercorn.
Long finish with round tannins and tangy cherries.
This 12 year old Syrah is drinking beautifully now. Well balanced with nice complexity and a great, soft mouthfeel.
Doesn't feel like a Syrah, but it's really delicious. Drinks more like a Napa Cabernet, which is fine with me.
This wine is so special, that it was made only in this 2010 vintage. A gorgeous Syrah from a Single Vineyard that will continue to age nicely in the next 10 years.
Wine Advocate 100 points.
Good by itself as a sipping wine, and a very nice wine to share with friends and talk about. Good right out of the bottle, rich and extracted.
Alcohol is nicely integrated by now, so you better watch out.
A blend of 96% Syrah, 3% Roussanne and 1% Viognier. Aged in all new French Oak barrels for 42 months.
Annual gathering with Chicago winos in Chicago (Smyth and The Loyalist - Chicago IL): Expressive nose displaying rich ripe black fruit, blackberry jam, black cherry, ink, licorice, mocha, lavender, dark spices and earth. Excellent concentration, layers upon layers of intense black fruit, good acidity and mineral, and a long ripe black fruit driven finish with a hint of ink at the end. There is a bit of heat at the end. Another big scale SQN.
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DC/Chicago Wine Dinner Extravaganza (Smyth and The Loyalist - Chicago IL): Easily the star of the flight, this was the only SQN that lived up to expectations tonight. Power from start-to-finish with everything harmonized. Tannins and structure balance out the ripe, rich fruit, all well supported by sweet and savory spice. Powerful, long finish. Great now through 2025, maybe a bit longer.
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Love Sine Qua Non wines. This one seems to be late in the game. Deep plum notes feels like it is past its prime. Opened up some over the evening but not mind blowing like other SQN wines I've had.
Still absolutely wonderful. The nose is intoxicating. This is a big wine, but everything is in balance. I feel like the next 5-10 years this bottle hits a peak only rivaled by a few.
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Amazing depth of fruit and panoply of tastes that continued to evolve in the glass over the night. Intense perfume with dark rich minerality, bacon, pepper and lingering, haunting finish
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Had this wine side by side with SQN 17th Nail and both were absolute stunners. I put this up there with top 5-10 all time wines for me. Everything in complete balance, velvety structure and long finish. Just an amazing wine. Drink or hold....I imagine it only gets better.
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Ratings correct! Perfect balance and flawless. Syrah is a grape that makes special wines all over the earth, but no one seems to get the incredible concentration without any heaviness that Manfred does. Bravo!
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Really a super wine, if a bit inferior to A Shot in the Dark that we had last summer. This is a dense dark berry chilled consomme of a wine, so concentrated it makes you wonder how they accomplish such a feat. This wine had everything; smoke, leather, cassis, dark cherries, cinnamon, sweet raspberries with a mineral wrapper, although I'd be lying if I said that the fruit wasn't still center stage. I'm lucky enough to hold 1 more bottle and I plan to hold it for at least another 4-5 years to try along its sister Grenache.
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I said goddamn! This was great. Deep dark fruit and coffee on nose and palate, but with a great sage and spice note. Day 2 the nose is intoxicating — there are some great herbal notes although the alcohol comes through a bit on the nose. Surprising minerality on this. Palate is ripe as one would expect, but there’s enough acid here to balance. Shines on the long finish — black fruit and dried herbs battle back and forth. This has a long life ahead and will get even more interesting over time.
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Jailbreak Brewery restaurant opening SQN wine dinner with Justin Bonner (Jailbreak Brewery, Laurel, MD): Intense inky nose displaying opulent primary Syrah fruit, crushed blackberry, black cherry, blueberry pie, ink, licorice, incense, espresso bean, lavender, dark spices, cedar/oak and strong crushed rock. Excellent concentration, very finely layered packed black fruit, silky and polished, perfect amount of acidity, strong mineral presence and a long intense black fruit driven finish with ink and oak at the end. This is more precise but not as opulent as the Grenache. Having drunk the 04 Poker Face upon release, this seems very similar.
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Sine Qua Non dinner (Eddie V's - Tysons Corner, VA): Intense nose displaying opulent jammy black fruit, blackberry liqueur, blackberry jam, mocha, licorice, smoke meat, baking spices, tree bark and earth. Exceptional concentration, layers upon layers of jammy black fruit, silky, round and polished, good acidity, no noticeable tannins and a long intense black fruit and vanilla driven finish. More opulent and concentrated than the regular cuvee but not as fresh and not as Syrah. If you are a big SQN fan, also prefers the EBA, a 100 pointer.
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Deep purple color with a bouquet of blackberries, cassis, and dark cherries, followed by vanilla. Similar flavor with good balance despite relatively high alcohol. The wine needed more airing than we could give it to bring out its full dimensions. Very good depth and nuance. It should improve with more time in bottle, although some raters have already given it a perfect score. SQN seldom disappoints. Drunk at the Havana Restaurant in Rosemary Beach, Florida. This was a beautiful wine for a beautiful place.
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Wow, this wine is so special. Dark, layered, complex, all the typical SQN qualities that set these wines apart, only amplified. No one comes close to this level in the big CA syrah category. Truly one of the best SQN experiences I have had so far.
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Chris' Farewell Dinner at WF OB: Holy moly folks. This is absolutely where it's at. SQN eclipses all other CA Syrah producers by miles. No one comes close. This is one of the best SQN experiences I've ever had and it absolutely blew me away. Where to start. Classic SQN nose. Creamy, buttery plush savory stewed vegetables, camphor graphite. Dark cherries, wet iron, smoke and so much more. This is absolutely incredible and finish goes on and on. Flawless finish. This is as good as Syrah gets in the New World PERIOD. This is one of the highest wines I have ever rated and it deserves every point.
Per Duane, a confected nose mouth - big, bold, fruit bomb. slightly syrupy. red fruits firing on all cylinders. Glad to have tried so I know what I'm (not) missing
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Perfection. Full stop. This wine is one of these that will raise opinion and feelings no matter who tastes it. First of all, it is extremely powerful. Second, it reveals a profound complexity after some time in the glass. Third, it has an elegance that is hard to compete with. The 2010 Stockholm Syndrome Syrah has spent a long time on oak. Inspired by the "LaLaLa wines" from Guigal, Manfred Krankl produces this exquisite wine made with fruit from his own Eleven Confessions vineyard. The nose offers up a rich creamy fruit full of deep burgundy velvet boysenberry, strawberry, raspberry and all the berries there is! Then a complex layer of cacao, sweet licorice, mint, subtle Eucalyptus, flowers and saddle leather emerges. After yet some time in the glass we move back to the fruit once again. It goes on like this for several hours in the glass. The wine never shuts down or become "simple"... But do not be mistaken, there is nothing over the top here. Everything is just remarkably well balanced and kept in a tight leash. There is not a hard edge to be found. Thick deep velvet is the best way to describe the nose. The palate actually fits pretty well to this description too. It is massive, but profoundly well balanced and totally integrated. Everything is in place, but of course the rather substantial oak treatment makes its voice heard in the pleasant crowd of fruit and acidity, though I would say there are no "oak related" tannins to speak of. There is enough texture and structure to make this effort last for another 2-3 deacades is my guesstimate. Perhaps needless to say, the length on the finish just goes on and on and with the seamless integration, power and elegance this wine surely is a pure treat. Hard to find anything that is "better", I cannot find one single flaw here. Hence, a perfect score it is.
When ending on a perfect score I do that from the view that I cannot find a flaw in the wine. In my world, perfection is reachable and I never hesitate to say a wine is flawless if I find it to be.
Amazing that such an enormous wine can drink so easily. Hints of licorice and maybe peppermint or cinnamon. Tastes slightly spicy but so well balanced as to be hard to discriminate. Visually so dark as to veer from purple almost into black. Spectacular wine. Could spend some thought on ideal pairings, but this one certainly falls into the category of drink it if it's on offer, irrespective of what the food might be...it will find a way to work.
Oh, and a creative name and label as well.
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Another wine that rewrites taste buds as it invades and conquers your palate. Add zero's to smoooth. Like a shear silk breeze on the tongue, than the flavors, like walking by the baker, the burger joint next to the florist. Tasty, smooth, leather and fruit all spiced up in SQN fasion, this is a classic SQN.
Young and still a few notes to get perfect. But a very solid wine nonetheless. Has the typical for us SQN style where everything is amplified (fruit, alc, body, richness) but somehow all exists in balance and definitely had a nice feel to it albeit its still a baby. We would have never opened this but it was too tempting not to try give the list price at the restaurant. Albeit an EBA the oak is well in tune, light coffee notes, pencil notes on nose, rie black fruit. Great polished acidity and holds the wine together and carries the 15.6% alc quite well. Its a bit of an amarone at times without the heavyness and felt quite elegant in its strength. Very difficult to rate but at this stage is a 92-94 for us. As we were trying to put the rating we both in a way agreed that its both low and high because its an SQN, ie a wine one tends to both over and under rate depending which side of the fence one stands.
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1500 Parker Points of Wines (GHT): Wonderful wine. Everything I want in a wine, but lacking that elusive (well maybe not on this night) emotion/quality to be 100 for me. That said, this is a wow wine for sure. Black raspberries, charred wood, black pepper, a bit of grilled meat. Ripe, but balanced fruit on the palate. No heat. Not cumbersome. Complex layers of fruit and earth unwind in the glass. Smooth finish. Went well with food.
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SQN - Legends: Packed with young blackberry fruit, spices, vanilla and smoke. A very impressive young wine which could turn out to be one of the great SQNs with more age. Very young it is certainly a very impressive wine with an impeccable balance! A real treat to taste this so very young!! A huge wine that can stand next to the best SQNs ever made!
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Wine Dinner Extravaganza (North Lincoln Avenue Loft - Chicago IL): Very excited about this wine's potential, but I don't think it's completely integrated and harmonious right now. But I almost always find that true for the SQN EBAs in the first year after release. I see a lot of the same character as the amazing 17th Nail in the next glass.
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The only reason I didn't say 100 is to leave room for what I assume will be some improvement. But seriously, this is as good as wine can be; layers of rich fruit, perfect balance, long finish, wow.
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No formal tasting note. Basically popped and poured for a group of wine drinking friends. Without out a doubt, one of the best wines I have every had. Simply mind-blowing - big, without being heavy. Balanced but powerful - truly a reason to drink wine.
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Inky black with purple in color, the wine is equally as rich in fruit, flavor and concentration. Pure, polished velvet in texture, there is so much ripe, juicy, sweet, black and blue fruit, espresso, chocolate, licorice and jam, you can almost eat it. What makes this all work is, everything is in balance. The wine was made from a blend of 96% Syrah, 3% Roussanne and 1% Viognier.
3/28/2024 - Rbhan12 Likes this wine: 96 Points
Just outstanding. Brought to a wine dinner by a generous friend.
Incredible nose of blood, iron, cured meat, game. Palate had tons of structure and minerality with iron earth overlaying savory fruit. Finish shows off some power and the structure again.
This should go another 20-30 years without problem. Pretty remarkable.
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12/9/2023 - Rosengoo wrote: 97 Points
Tonight, this bottle was outstanding. Drank with minimal decanting, this wine was clear and deep red in colour with a nose of dark berries and some graphite. In the glass were flavours of dark fruits mixed with some ripe cherries and a noticeable amount of spices. Both the tannins and acidity were at a balanced level. Finally, each sip of this had an exceptionally long finish!
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10/11/2023 - Rosengoo wrote: 98 Points
This was an exceptional wine. Clear and incredibly deep inky purple in colour with a nose of ripe cherries and some pepper. In the glass were those same ripe cherries alongside white pepper and some vegetal notes. The tannins and acidity were not heavy at all in very balanced. You would never know that this wine is almost 16% in alcohol. One of my wines of the year so far.
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5/21/2023 - Francois Le Mouel Likes this wine: 95 Points
I had high expectations for this bottle. This is an excellent and even impressive Syrah, but is it worth the price? I don't think so. The nose is not very intense, with beautiful aromas of cherries, blueberries, leather and spices. The mouthfeel is impressive on the palate. Showing perfect balance and a long finish. Enjoy now or hold for another 5-10 years.
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1/19/2023 - Elpaninaro Likes this wine:
very deep purple red color, on the nose a grand spiciness with black fruits pushed to the limit, roasted blackberries, on the palate jammy blackberry fruit, a little bit of heat but with minimal impact given the grand scale of the wine itself, cherry liqueur, great long finish with soy and herbal notes, this is a big boy even by SQN standards with all the unique wonder and carefree wildness I love about this winemaker.
****, showing well now and no end in sight
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12/17/2022 - robertek wrote: 98 Points
Fun to taste the SQN 09,10,11 in a flight. Close call and only the Stockholm Syndrome had a point advantage of the others. So balanced to drink now but will improve even further - all three
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7/16/2022 - Odedis.Wine.reviews Likes this wine: 94 Points
To celebrate my 7,500th wine review on Vivino, here is a hundred point wine from Santa Rita Hills.
Dark inky in color with a short purple rim.
On the nose black cherries, blackberries, tobacco, chocolates, light vanilla, cedar and black pepper.
Full bodied and soft, with medium acidity.
Dry and fruity on the palate with blackberries, black plums, cooked cherries, cedar, vanilla, spices, chocolates, tobacco, herbs and peppercorn.
Long finish with round tannins and tangy cherries.
This 12 year old Syrah is drinking beautifully now. Well balanced with nice complexity and a great, soft mouthfeel.
Doesn't feel like a Syrah, but it's really delicious. Drinks more like a Napa Cabernet, which is fine with me.
This wine is so special, that it was made only in this 2010 vintage. A gorgeous Syrah from a Single Vineyard that will continue to age nicely in the next 10 years.
Wine Advocate 100 points.
Good by itself as a sipping wine, and a very nice wine to share with friends and talk about. Good right out of the bottle, rich and extracted.
Alcohol is nicely integrated by now, so you better watch out.
A blend of 96% Syrah, 3% Roussanne and 1% Viognier. Aged in all new French Oak barrels for 42 months.
15.6% alcohol by volume.
94 points.
$1,000.
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7/16/2021 - dcwino wrote: 95 Points
Annual gathering with Chicago winos in Chicago (Smyth and The Loyalist - Chicago IL): Expressive nose displaying rich ripe black fruit, blackberry jam, black cherry, ink, licorice, mocha, lavender, dark spices and earth. Excellent concentration, layers upon layers of intense black fruit, good acidity and mineral, and a long ripe black fruit driven finish with a hint of ink at the end. There is a bit of heat at the end. Another big scale SQN.
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7/16/2021 - Burgundy Al wrote: 94 Points
DC/Chicago Wine Dinner Extravaganza (Smyth and The Loyalist - Chicago IL): Easily the star of the flight, this was the only SQN that lived up to expectations tonight. Power from start-to-finish with everything harmonized. Tannins and structure balance out the ripe, rich fruit, all well supported by sweet and savory spice. Powerful, long finish. Great now through 2025, maybe a bit longer.
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7/11/2021 - RMundell Likes this wine: 92 Points
Love Sine Qua Non wines. This one seems to be late in the game. Deep plum notes feels like it is past its prime. Opened up some over the evening but not mind blowing like other SQN wines I've had.
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3/24/2021 - BROpus One Likes this wine: 100 Points
Still absolutely wonderful. The nose is intoxicating. This is a big wine, but everything is in balance. I feel like the next 5-10 years this bottle hits a peak only rivaled by a few.
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2/27/2021 - Acohen Likes this wine: 99 Points
Amazing depth of fruit and panoply of tastes that continued to evolve in the glass over the night. Intense perfume with dark rich minerality, bacon, pepper and lingering, haunting finish
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9/28/2020 - BROpus One Likes this wine: 100 Points
Had this wine side by side with SQN 17th Nail and both were absolute stunners. I put this up there with top 5-10 all time wines for me. Everything in complete balance, velvety structure and long finish. Just an amazing wine. Drink or hold....I imagine it only gets better.
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8/25/2020 - bingram Likes this wine: 100 Points
Ratings correct! Perfect balance and flawless. Syrah is a grape that makes special wines all over the earth, but no one seems to get the incredible concentration without any heaviness that Manfred does. Bravo!
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6/22/2019 - D'Yquembe Mutumbo wrote: 97 Points
Really a super wine, if a bit inferior to A Shot in the Dark that we had last summer. This is a dense dark berry chilled consomme of a wine, so concentrated it makes you wonder how they accomplish such a feat. This wine had everything; smoke, leather, cassis, dark cherries, cinnamon, sweet raspberries with a mineral wrapper, although I'd be lying if I said that the fruit wasn't still center stage. I'm lucky enough to hold 1 more bottle and I plan to hold it for at least another 4-5 years to try along its sister Grenache.
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1/11/2019 - patwjr Likes this wine: 97 Points
Decanted for over 4 hours, drank over 2 hours. Rich, dense, tasty & tight - give it more time to further develop.
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6/18/2018 - ews3 wrote: 96 Points
I said goddamn! This was great. Deep dark fruit and coffee on nose and palate, but with a great sage and spice note. Day 2 the nose is intoxicating — there are some great herbal notes although the alcohol comes through a bit on the nose. Surprising minerality on this. Palate is ripe as one would expect, but there’s enough acid here to balance. Shines on the long finish — black fruit and dried herbs battle back and forth. This has a long life ahead and will get even more interesting over time.
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5/30/2018 - dcwino wrote: 96 Points
Jailbreak Brewery restaurant opening SQN wine dinner with Justin Bonner (Jailbreak Brewery, Laurel, MD): Intense inky nose displaying opulent primary Syrah fruit, crushed blackberry, black cherry, blueberry pie, ink, licorice, incense, espresso bean, lavender, dark spices, cedar/oak and strong crushed rock. Excellent concentration, very finely layered packed black fruit, silky and polished, perfect amount of acidity, strong mineral presence and a long intense black fruit driven finish with ink and oak at the end. This is more precise but not as opulent as the Grenache. Having drunk the 04 Poker Face upon release, this seems very similar.
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2/25/2018 - G_H wrote: 97 Points
Sunday roast, nice fruit, spices, curry leaves, incredibly elegant while being super opulent. Such a stunning wine! Bright future!
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1/26/2018 - dcwino wrote: 95 Points
Sine Qua Non dinner (Eddie V's - Tysons Corner, VA): Intense nose displaying opulent jammy black fruit, blackberry liqueur, blackberry jam, mocha, licorice, smoke meat, baking spices, tree bark and earth. Exceptional concentration, layers upon layers of jammy black fruit, silky, round and polished, good acidity, no noticeable tannins and a long intense black fruit and vanilla driven finish. More opulent and concentrated than the regular cuvee but not as fresh and not as Syrah. If you are a big SQN fan, also prefers the EBA, a 100 pointer.
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12/25/2017 - MarkC wrote:
Needs at least 4-6 hours of decant time.
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9/17/2017 - tcosgriff Likes this wine: 95 Points
Deep purple color with a bouquet of blackberries, cassis, and dark cherries, followed by vanilla. Similar flavor with good balance despite relatively high alcohol. The wine needed more airing than we could give it to bring out its full dimensions. Very good depth and nuance. It should improve with more time in bottle, although some raters have already given it a perfect score. SQN seldom disappoints. Drunk at the Havana Restaurant in Rosemary Beach, Florida. This was a beautiful wine for a beautiful place.
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9/2/2017 - winestem Likes this wine: 96 Points
Remarkable Syrah that doesn't stop with "wow"! Inky dark red, luscious and powerful fruits.
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6/1/2017 - WineBum wrote: 99 Points
Wow, this wine is so special. Dark, layered, complex, all the typical SQN qualities that set these wines apart, only amplified. No one comes close to this level in the big CA syrah category. Truly one of the best SQN experiences I have had so far.
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5/31/2017 - beezer6 wrote: 99 Points
Chris' Farewell Dinner at WF OB: Holy moly folks. This is absolutely where it's at. SQN eclipses all other CA Syrah producers by miles. No one comes close. This is one of the best SQN experiences I've ever had and it absolutely blew me away. Where to start.
Classic SQN nose. Creamy, buttery plush savory stewed vegetables, camphor graphite. Dark cherries, wet iron, smoke and so much more. This is absolutely incredible and finish goes on and on. Flawless finish. This is as good as Syrah gets in the New World PERIOD. This is one of the highest wines I have ever rated and it deserves every point.
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4/15/2017 - soyhead wrote:
Per Duane, a confected nose
mouth - big, bold, fruit bomb. slightly syrupy. red fruits firing on all cylinders. Glad to have tried so I know what I'm (not) missing
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1/6/2017 - Christoffer78 Likes this wine: 100 Points
Perfection. Full stop. This wine is one of these that will raise opinion and feelings no matter who tastes it. First of all, it is extremely powerful. Second, it reveals a profound complexity after some time in the glass. Third, it has an elegance that is hard to compete with. The 2010 Stockholm Syndrome Syrah has spent a long time on oak. Inspired by the "LaLaLa wines" from Guigal, Manfred Krankl produces this exquisite wine made with fruit from his own Eleven Confessions vineyard. The nose offers up a rich creamy fruit full of deep burgundy velvet boysenberry, strawberry, raspberry and all the berries there is! Then a complex layer of cacao, sweet licorice, mint, subtle Eucalyptus, flowers and saddle leather emerges. After yet some time in the glass we move back to the fruit once again. It goes on like this for several hours in the glass. The wine never shuts down or become "simple"... But do not be mistaken, there is nothing over the top here. Everything is just remarkably well balanced and kept in a tight leash. There is not a hard edge to be found. Thick deep velvet is the best way to describe the nose. The palate actually fits pretty well to this description too. It is massive, but profoundly well balanced and totally integrated. Everything is in place, but of course the rather substantial oak treatment makes its voice heard in the pleasant crowd of fruit and acidity, though I would say there are no "oak related" tannins to speak of. There is enough texture and structure to make this effort last for another 2-3 deacades is my guesstimate. Perhaps needless to say, the length on the finish just goes on and on and with the seamless integration, power and elegance this wine surely is a pure treat. Hard to find anything that is "better", I cannot find one single flaw here. Hence, a perfect score it is.
When ending on a perfect score I do that from the view that I cannot find a flaw in the wine. In my world, perfection is reachable and I never hesitate to say a wine is flawless if I find it to be.
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12/3/2016 - Escalus wrote: 100 Points
Amazing that such an enormous wine can drink so easily. Hints of licorice and maybe peppermint or cinnamon. Tastes slightly spicy but so well balanced as to be hard to discriminate. Visually so dark as to veer from purple almost into black. Spectacular wine. Could spend some thought on ideal pairings, but this one certainly falls into the category of drink it if it's on offer, irrespective of what the food might be...it will find a way to work.
Oh, and a creative name and label as well.
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9/29/2016 - charleshetzel wrote: 100 Points
Perfection ...this Grenache was decanted for 8 hours and it was pure perfection
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5/14/2016 - shadow wrote: 100 Points
Another wine that rewrites taste buds as it invades and conquers your palate.
Add zero's to smoooth.
Like a shear silk breeze on the tongue, than the flavors, like walking by the baker, the burger joint next to the florist.
Tasty, smooth, leather and fruit all spiced up in SQN fasion, this is a classic SQN.
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11/17/2015 - Papies wrote:
Young and still a few notes to get perfect. But a very solid wine nonetheless.
Has the typical for us SQN style where everything is amplified (fruit, alc, body, richness) but somehow all exists in balance and definitely had a nice feel to it albeit its still a baby. We would have never opened this but it was too tempting not to try give the list price at the restaurant.
Albeit an EBA the oak is well in tune, light coffee notes, pencil notes on nose, rie black fruit. Great polished acidity and holds the wine together and carries the 15.6% alc quite well. Its a bit of an amarone at times without the heavyness and felt quite elegant in its strength.
Very difficult to rate but at this stage is a 92-94 for us. As we were trying to put the rating we both in a way agreed that its both low and high because its an SQN, ie a wine one tends to both over and under rate depending which side of the fence one stands.
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6/28/2015 - Loren Sonkin wrote: 99 Points
1500 Parker Points of Wines (GHT): Wonderful wine. Everything I want in a wine, but lacking that elusive (well maybe not on this night) emotion/quality to be 100 for me. That said, this is a wow wine for sure. Black raspberries, charred wood, black pepper, a bit of grilled meat. Ripe, but balanced fruit on the palate. No heat. Not cumbersome. Complex layers of fruit and earth unwind in the glass. Smooth finish. Went well with food.
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5/9/2015 - canan wrote: 100 Points
SQN - Legends: Packed with young blackberry fruit, spices, vanilla and smoke. A very impressive young wine which could turn out to be one of the great SQNs with more age.
Very young it is certainly a very impressive wine with an impeccable balance!
A real treat to taste this so very young!! A huge wine that can stand next to the best SQNs ever made!
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4/24/2015 - Burgundy Al wrote:
Wine Dinner Extravaganza (North Lincoln Avenue Loft - Chicago IL): Very excited about this wine's potential, but I don't think it's completely integrated and harmonious right now. But I almost always find that true for the SQN EBAs in the first year after release. I see a lot of the same character as the amazing 17th Nail in the next glass.
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4/19/2015 - Knicksfan wrote: 99 Points
The only reason I didn't say 100 is to leave room for what I assume will be some improvement. But seriously, this is as good as wine can be; layers of rich fruit, perfect balance, long finish, wow.
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3/22/2015 - WestJohnson Likes this wine: 100 Points
No formal tasting note. Basically popped and poured for a group of wine drinking friends. Without out a doubt, one of the best wines I have every had. Simply mind-blowing - big, without being heavy. Balanced but powerful - truly a reason to drink wine.
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1/4/2015 - Jeff Leve wrote: 100 Points
Inky black with purple in color, the wine is equally as rich in fruit, flavor and concentration. Pure, polished velvet in texture, there is so much ripe, juicy, sweet, black and blue fruit, espresso, chocolate, licorice and jam, you can almost eat it. What makes this all work is, everything is in balance. The wine was made from a blend of 96% Syrah, 3% Roussanne and 1% Viognier.
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12/4/2014 - CMCLR wrote: 99 Points
Insane- seamless, long finish. Really impressive.
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