Ooh Lordy this bottle was hot and angry on first pull. AIR!!! When we woke it up, it didn’t wanna get up, it didn’t wanna come down for breakfast, it didn’t wanna do its chores, it didn’t wanna do its homework… It didn’t want to do anything but lay in bed, shove the pillow into its face, and not shower for another week. “Mommmmm… Leave me alone!” I mean, seriously this thing was at war with my palate at first. Blackberry scatter-bombs and black mineral missiles galore.
With a bit of nagging, finger wagging, and NATO peace talks, it started to bust out of its cocoon and release some of the flavor hostages, but it stayed pretty hostile throughout consumption. A big wine that still needs some big time in bottle. 2030 seems about right.
Everyone who knows me, knows I love SQN! Even though this wine could have used some air before serving, it was still drinking quite well on the PnP! I think 9 years is a good barometer for SQN as this seemed to just be entering its prime drinking window. For those who like some tertiary flavors, they are just starting to emerge. For those who love hedonistic fruit, it is there in spades (for those who don't, well...you shouldn't be drinking SQN to begin with!)
The wine showed plenty of layered dark fruit (blackberry, currant, cassis, mountain pepper berries) along with some dark red cherry and huckleberry. The fruit was followed by waves of forest floor, tar and some cocoa, mixed with smoked meat and bacon fat. Of course, the wine had the plush tannins SQN is known for, along with a medium-long finish. Absolutely delicious! 96+ to 97 and a great way to end the evening!
Note: I would give this at least an hour decant to coax out more of the tertiary goodness....no jeopardy of losing the fruit!
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Smacks you in the face with red and black fruit and alcohol. Needs maybe 20 years to simmer down; ok I exaggerate on the 20 years, but it would probably be super cool to drink at that time to see what it has evolved into. That all being said, I can see wine people love SQN though. Hell, I might even get one to just have in the cellar and to pop when I am 60yo.
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Eyes Wide Shut - Day 2 (A quiet place): Nose: Biggest fruits of the night with ripe blueberries but with an orange citrus note, softening the blow big time. A bit boozy.
Palate: Dark and flowing earth with dark fruits, blackberries, currants, and dark blue fruits. Tons of fruits. The boozy heat from the nose lingers on the finish.
Thankfully this was served at the end, almost like a dessert. Needed some air for sure, or just wait for another handful of years before opening. 96+
Decanted for five hours. Kirsch, dried blueberries, ripe raspberries, espresso, smoked pork shoulder, baked peaches, smoky teak and acacia. There’s some needed acidity, with a very youthful presence, and a need to still gain some air. Fine, grainy tannins and a plush, savory middle palate. There’s an aftertaste of smoke a red fruit, yet a form of restrain. This is less dark and brooding than upon release, starting to present itself, yet it is as opaque as one could imagine visually. Still, some age will help. There’s this sweet backend and elixir quality. All around an intriguing vintage for Eleven Confessions Syrah. Drink 2026 -.
‘10, ‘15 and ‘16 are my favorite vintage’s for Eleven Confessions. However, I have yet to try ‘18 and ‘19. Yet…
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Popped and poured following golf. Quite floral and pretty from the onset. Raspberry coulis, ripe black berries, pepper and bacon notes as well. Full-bodied and massive, but balanced. Abundant black fruit with fine tannin and a long finish.
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Massive wine. Dark, inky and brooding. A little bit of menthol, bramble and a hint of stewed meat. It's thick, heavy and weighted. There's so much going on you can get lost. Like getting pulled under in a tsunami. This wine is great now and it is so youthful, I imagine it shouldn't be opened for at least another 5 years before it takes flight.
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Pulled the cork and poured perhaps six or seven hours later. Inky dark color. Aromas of boysenberry, blueberry, pepper, raspberry liqueur and game. Firm, sweet tannin. Black raspberry, spice and pepper, with wonderful sweet dark fruit and chalky tannin. Lingering finish. Still rather big and primary, but not unexpected given the producer. Needs a couple of years yet, perhaps from 2025+.
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Creeping up on two years now since I last had a bottle, I can’t deny my affection for this wine; it simply commands attention as soon as it hits the glass. Pouring a moonless midnight black-purple, the “M” is serious business from the word go, and really it all comes down to acknowledging that this has developed into a near perfect example of the varietal. Of course there are stylistic leanings that steer directly into the modern realm here, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is just another clobberfest CA Syrah that is hellbent on thumping your palate just for giggles. Finesse, purity of fruit, and sophistication live here, too.
Purple and black fruit are ripe but pure, rich but not weighty, saturated and viscous but not syrupy, and have a textural breadth that coats the palate with erotic and deeply pitched fruit and spice flavors that are both silky and chewy. Like many Eleven Confessions, there is an undulating brawn here that will benefit from a few more years of cellaring. 99-100 points.
I liked it a lot, but it was up against a magnum of distant vintage Haut Brion. The HB matched the meal really well, etc etc. The SQN is a very big wine, and it didn’t quite get the full measure of aeration that I think it probably needs. I suspect this is a 98 but for me it was a 95. I think others put it at a 93. But they’re just naturally skeptical.
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Tasted at a wine luncheon at the Ft Worth City Club on April 30, 2021. Lunch was 2 sparklers, 4 whites, 4 reds, and a dessert wine. All wines were served blind. --- The fourth of four red wines poured. This one IMO did not pair the best with the lamb chops (the 2012 Carlisle Saitone Zin did) and IMO was not the best wine on the table (the 2013 Donelan Genevieve's Block was). But it was my second favorite of all the wines on the table and probably did edge out the Angelus as the most expensive wine on the table. I do not have much experience with SQN wines. And I most certainly don't understand the SQN rating guid which seems to start at 95 and only go up from there. If I had to rate this one, I would have rated it a 93. It had been decanted for hours prior to the lunch. This wine was probably the most full-bodied wine on the table. Blackberry pie, roasted black fruit, sweet, youthful, and ready to rock. Still had quite a bit of tannic grip on the finish. I guessed that this one was an Aussie Shiraz.
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Brought early out of cellaring to pair with the Atlantis my friend so generously shared. It’s not ready yet. Tight and sharp on the palette it needs an overnight air to get a semblance of the great Syrahs that Manfred produces. Tremendous power underneath the smooth exterior of this wine. In glass for a brief phase it gave off the most alluring candy toffee bouquet but that also shut pretty quick. Revisit in 7-10 years. In the meantime pay secondary market premium for the Atlantis.
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This is a sexy beast. This needs a loooong decant. Suggested- 4 hours. Full bodied doesn’t do this justice. Currently slight warmth with an above average finish. Balance isn’t quite where it will be. This is probably 5 years away from its prime and I can see this drinking well for 30 years. Overall a very hedonistic wine that should be tried at least once. Worth the price of admission.
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Nose: [55°] A greeting of purple flowers, clean wet oak and a clean running river bed. [58°] Deep black earth and a tiny dab of spice (or could be heat, hard to tell). [64°] The wet oak becomes dry, deep earth shows more with sweet and ripe blackberries. With time, undergrowth appears with brown branches, brush and tree bark.
Palate: [58°] Lots of black fruits like blackberries, black cherries, black currants, lots of juiciness but very well tamed. [64°] Black, dark fruits stay vigilant with time (and seem to show shades of purple), never losing focus, smooth deep earth, dull/aged oak (not a bad thing here), sophisticated undergrowth with pleasant bitterness and slightly savory minerals linger on the finish.
Attributes: Really dark ruby. Dry with medium to medium-plus amounts of grainy tannin. Medium to medium-plus body with medium to medium-plus acidity (great integration if it's on the higher end). Good finish of at least 16-18+ seconds.
Thoughts: Lots of dark and black fruit and surprisingly not that much heat shows for 16.2% alc. It shows only just a bit on the finish - lower percentaged(?) alcochol reds I've had before showed way hotter for less %. Great concentration of fruit but I would never call this a fruit bomb (that has a negative connotation, right?). Great execution of flavors and really enjoyable. Kinda crazy how this is a Syrah. This also took a lot less time to open up, almost good straight from the bottle. Such great showing of black fruit here. I'm hoping time can temper the slight bit of heat. 98+
Other notes: Bordeaux glass. Slow-ox'ed in bottle for the duration of consumption over 4 hours, decant if necessary.
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Brief decant. Very closed for a few minutes then opened up with black fruit, chalky red fruit, aniseed and bitter cherry. Still seems way too young with alcoholic heat and sulphur on the finish towards the last glass.
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A bit tight as a PnP, massive black fruit, blackberry, plum, black cherry, black currant, huge black licorice throughout the mid-palate, anise, five spice, cinnamon, squid ink, asphalt, the flavor just goes on and on with a silky smooth profile and a finish that lasts over a minute. There's a bit of heat on the finish that's covered up for the most part with the massive fruit. That's impressive at 16.2% alcohol... One of the best wines of the year. Needs some air!
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Stunning purple and black fruit lead a formidable but sophisticatedly succulent push on the front-end delivery of the SQN “M” Syrah. Flanked by notes of blackberry, black olives, creosote, melted licorice, old tree bark, black rock, Asian spices, and hints of roast beef and violets, the core of the M is stunningly penetrating on the palate; deeply concentrated, but with a silky execution that makes for a sexy and sophisticated mouthfeel.
Considering the velvet elongation and expansion of flavor on the mid-palate, this stays incredibly focused, with a layered distribution of flavors that offers intention and purpose without sacrificing just the right amount of hedonism and succulence. Crescendos with a soft, rolling thunder finish.
This is just what I want in a SQN Syrah, and it is a near-flawless example of the varietal on the domestic front. With air, it gains even more synchronicity. A wine to drink now if you offer it a chance to breathe, or better yet, hold for a few years minimum, ideally in an effort to extract every last little kernel of awesomeness from it (as I’ve found that SQNs typically start to really optimize at the 7-8+ year-from-vintage mark). Try again in 2022+. A potentially perfect score here with a little more time. 99+ points.
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This is a very special wine. Super intense, deep and powerful, yet somehow seamless with very little weight. Starts with a nose of smoked meat, black olives, violets, black licorice and spice box. A powerhouse on the palate, it shows huge mostly black fruit, backed up by earthy and mineral driven flavors. The tannins are amazingly integrated and refined, with wonderful layering and a super sophisticated mouthfeel. Maybe the most amazing quality here is there is nothing flabby at all despite endless fruit intensity. The wine remains focused and firm, with purity and amazing persistence. Better with more air and certainly early for this wine, but fun to experience. Many thanks to CSIMM1161 for providing this beauty at dinner.
4/28/2024 - csimm wrote:
Ooh Lordy this bottle was hot and angry on first pull. AIR!!! When we woke it up, it didn’t wanna get up, it didn’t wanna come down for breakfast, it didn’t wanna do its chores, it didn’t wanna do its homework… It didn’t want to do anything but lay in bed, shove the pillow into its face, and not shower for another week. “Mommmmm… Leave me alone!” I mean, seriously this thing was at war with my palate at first. Blackberry scatter-bombs and black mineral missiles galore.
With a bit of nagging, finger wagging, and NATO peace talks, it started to bust out of its cocoon and release some of the flavor hostages, but it stayed pretty hostile throughout consumption. A big wine that still needs some big time in bottle. 2030 seems about right.
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4/19/2024 - pmeeno Likes this wine: 98 Points
Deeper red fruits that last on the pallet. This Syrah is unique and delicious. Tannins are still present, but this drank fruit forward.
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4/14/2024 - MN Wine Junkie Likes this wine: 97 Points
Champers and Napa Cabs Blind - Fun Times! (Chateau Simms): PnP - This was another bottle that was a last minute decision, and thus did not receive the proper preparation.
Everyone who knows me, knows I love SQN! Even though this wine could have used some air before serving, it was still drinking quite well on the PnP! I think 9 years is a good barometer for SQN as this seemed to just be entering its prime drinking window. For those who like some tertiary flavors, they are just starting to emerge. For those who love hedonistic fruit, it is there in spades (for those who don't, well...you shouldn't be drinking SQN to begin with!)
The wine showed plenty of layered dark fruit (blackberry, currant, cassis, mountain pepper berries) along with some dark red cherry and huckleberry. The fruit was followed by waves of forest floor, tar and some cocoa, mixed with smoked meat and bacon fat. Of course, the wine had the plush tannins SQN is known for, along with a medium-long finish. Absolutely delicious! 96+ to 97 and a great way to end the evening!
Note: I would give this at least an hour decant to coax out more of the tertiary goodness....no jeopardy of losing the fruit!
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4/14/2024 - bsumoba Likes this wine:
Smacks you in the face with red and black fruit and alcohol. Needs maybe 20 years to simmer down; ok I exaggerate on the 20 years, but it would probably be super cool to drink at that time to see what it has evolved into. That all being said, I can see wine people love SQN though. Hell, I might even get one to just have in the cellar and to pop when I am 60yo.
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4/14/2024 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine: 96 Points
Eyes Wide Shut - Day 2 (A quiet place): Nose: Biggest fruits of the night with ripe blueberries but with an orange citrus note, softening the blow big time. A bit boozy.
Palate: Dark and flowing earth with dark fruits, blackberries, currants, and dark blue fruits. Tons of fruits. The boozy heat from the nose lingers on the finish.
Thankfully this was served at the end, almost like a dessert. Needed some air for sure, or just wait for another handful of years before opening. 96+
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3/25/2023 - Matt Scott Likes this wine: 99 Points
Decanted for five hours. Kirsch, dried blueberries, ripe raspberries, espresso, smoked pork shoulder, baked peaches, smoky teak and acacia. There’s some needed acidity, with a very youthful presence, and a need to still gain some air. Fine, grainy tannins and a plush, savory middle palate. There’s an aftertaste of smoke a red fruit, yet a form of restrain. This is less dark and brooding than upon release, starting to present itself, yet it is as opaque as one could imagine visually. Still, some age will help. There’s this sweet backend and elixir quality. All around an intriguing vintage for Eleven Confessions Syrah. Drink 2026 -.
‘10, ‘15 and ‘16 are my favorite vintage’s for Eleven Confessions. However, I have yet to try ‘18 and ‘19. Yet…
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5/24/2022 - AllRed wrote: 96 Points
Popped and poured following golf. Quite floral and pretty from the onset. Raspberry coulis, ripe black berries, pepper and bacon notes as well. Full-bodied and massive, but balanced. Abundant black fruit with fine tannin and a long finish.
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5/22/2022 - rm97 wrote:
Big wine. Almost not drinkable at this age. Monolithic. Would wait 5+ years.
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3/13/2022 - Thirsty1 Likes this wine:
Massive wine. Dark, inky and brooding. A little bit of menthol, bramble and a hint of stewed meat. It's thick, heavy and weighted. There's so much going on you can get lost. Like getting pulled under in a tsunami. This wine is great now and it is so youthful, I imagine it shouldn't be opened for at least another 5 years before it takes flight.
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3/5/2022 - AllRed wrote: 93 Points
Pulled the cork and poured perhaps six or seven hours later. Inky dark color. Aromas of boysenberry, blueberry, pepper, raspberry liqueur and game. Firm, sweet tannin. Black raspberry, spice and pepper, with wonderful sweet dark fruit and chalky tannin. Lingering finish. Still rather big and primary, but not unexpected given the producer. Needs a couple of years yet, perhaps from 2025+.
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12/10/2021 - SineQuaNon wrote: flawed
Oooh Nooo!! Corked!! Goddangit! Even brought it to show the qualities of SQN to people, who had never had SQN before. Super sadface
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9/21/2021 - csimm wrote: 100 Points
Creeping up on two years now since I last had a bottle, I can’t deny my affection for this wine; it simply commands attention as soon as it hits the glass. Pouring a moonless midnight black-purple, the “M” is serious business from the word go, and really it all comes down to acknowledging that this has developed into a near perfect example of the varietal. Of course there are stylistic leanings that steer directly into the modern realm here, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is just another clobberfest CA Syrah that is hellbent on thumping your palate just for giggles. Finesse, purity of fruit, and sophistication live here, too.
Purple and black fruit are ripe but pure, rich but not weighty, saturated and viscous but not syrupy, and have a textural breadth that coats the palate with erotic and deeply pitched fruit and spice flavors that are both silky and chewy. Like many Eleven Confessions, there is an undulating brawn here that will benefit from a few more years of cellaring. 99-100 points.
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7/24/2021 - CCGCCG Likes this wine: 95 Points
I liked it a lot, but it was up against a magnum of distant vintage Haut Brion. The HB matched the meal really well, etc etc. The SQN is a very big wine, and it didn’t quite get the full measure of aeration that I think it probably needs. I suspect this is a 98 but for me it was a 95. I think others put it at a 93. But they’re just naturally skeptical.
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5/22/2021 - mflesh wrote:
Tasted at a wine luncheon at the Ft Worth City Club on April 30, 2021. Lunch was 2 sparklers, 4 whites, 4 reds, and a dessert wine. All wines were served blind. --- The fourth of four red wines poured. This one IMO did not pair the best with the lamb chops (the 2012 Carlisle Saitone Zin did) and IMO was not the best wine on the table (the 2013 Donelan Genevieve's Block was). But it was my second favorite of all the wines on the table and probably did edge out the Angelus as the most expensive wine on the table. I do not have much experience with SQN wines. And I most certainly don't understand the SQN rating guid which seems to start at 95 and only go up from there. If I had to rate this one, I would have rated it a 93. It had been decanted for hours prior to the lunch. This wine was probably the most full-bodied wine on the table. Blackberry pie, roasted black fruit, sweet, youthful, and ready to rock. Still had quite a bit of tannic grip on the finish. I guessed that this one was an Aussie Shiraz.
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4/24/2021 - bengti Likes this wine: 90 Points
Brought early out of cellaring to pair with the Atlantis my friend so generously shared. It’s not ready yet. Tight and sharp on the palette it needs an overnight air to get a semblance of the great Syrahs that Manfred produces. Tremendous power underneath the smooth exterior of this wine. In glass for a brief phase it gave off the most alluring candy toffee bouquet but that also shut pretty quick. Revisit in 7-10 years. In the meantime pay secondary market premium for the Atlantis.
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12/11/2020 - N.Bonaparte wrote: 94 Points
This is a sexy beast. This needs a loooong decant. Suggested- 4 hours. Full bodied doesn’t do this justice. Currently slight warmth with an above average finish. Balance isn’t quite where it will be. This is probably 5 years away from its prime and I can see this drinking well for 30 years. Overall a very hedonistic wine that should be tried at least once. Worth the price of admission.
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7/25/2020 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine: 98 Points
Nose: [55°] A greeting of purple flowers, clean wet oak and a clean running river bed. [58°] Deep black earth and a tiny dab of spice (or could be heat, hard to tell). [64°] The wet oak becomes dry, deep earth shows more with sweet and ripe blackberries. With time, undergrowth appears with brown branches, brush and tree bark.
Palate: [58°] Lots of black fruits like blackberries, black cherries, black currants, lots of juiciness but very well tamed. [64°] Black, dark fruits stay vigilant with time (and seem to show shades of purple), never losing focus, smooth deep earth, dull/aged oak (not a bad thing here), sophisticated undergrowth with pleasant bitterness and slightly savory minerals linger on the finish.
Attributes: Really dark ruby. Dry with medium to medium-plus amounts of grainy tannin. Medium to medium-plus body with medium to medium-plus acidity (great integration if it's on the higher end). Good finish of at least 16-18+ seconds.
Thoughts: Lots of dark and black fruit and surprisingly not that much heat shows for 16.2% alc. It shows only just a bit on the finish - lower percentaged(?) alcochol reds I've had before showed way hotter for less %. Great concentration of fruit but I would never call this a fruit bomb (that has a negative connotation, right?). Great execution of flavors and really enjoyable. Kinda crazy how this is a Syrah. This also took a lot less time to open up, almost good straight from the bottle. Such great showing of black fruit here. I'm hoping time can temper the slight bit of heat. 98+
Other notes: Bordeaux glass. Slow-ox'ed in bottle for the duration of consumption over 4 hours, decant if necessary.
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6/24/2020 - Lord of the Bottles Likes this wine:
Brief decant. Very closed for a few minutes then opened up with black fruit, chalky red fruit, aniseed and bitter cherry. Still seems way too young with alcoholic heat and sulphur on the finish towards the last glass.
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12/25/2019 - Winedog1 Likes this wine: 98 Points
This is very similar to NOK. However, it is perhaps more complex. The age of the bottle may contribute here. Dark fruits. Vanilla. Glycerin. Silky.
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12/22/2019 - pakabear Likes this wine: 99 Points
A bit tight as a PnP, massive black fruit, blackberry, plum, black cherry, black currant, huge black licorice throughout the mid-palate, anise, five spice, cinnamon, squid ink, asphalt, the flavor just goes on and on with a silky smooth profile and a finish that lasts over a minute. There's a bit of heat on the finish that's covered up for the most part with the massive fruit. That's impressive at 16.2% alcohol... One of the best wines of the year. Needs some air!
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12/10/2019 - csimm wrote: 99 Points
Stunning purple and black fruit lead a formidable but sophisticatedly succulent push on the front-end delivery of the SQN “M” Syrah. Flanked by notes of blackberry, black olives, creosote, melted licorice, old tree bark, black rock, Asian spices, and hints of roast beef and violets, the core of the M is stunningly penetrating on the palate; deeply concentrated, but with a silky execution that makes for a sexy and sophisticated mouthfeel.
Considering the velvet elongation and expansion of flavor on the mid-palate, this stays incredibly focused, with a layered distribution of flavors that offers intention and purpose without sacrificing just the right amount of hedonism and succulence. Crescendos with a soft, rolling thunder finish.
This is just what I want in a SQN Syrah, and it is a near-flawless example of the varietal on the domestic front. With air, it gains even more synchronicity. A wine to drink now if you offer it a chance to breathe, or better yet, hold for a few years minimum, ideally in an effort to extract every last little kernel of awesomeness from it (as I’ve found that SQNs typically start to really optimize at the 7-8+ year-from-vintage mark). Try again in 2022+. A potentially perfect score here with a little more time. 99+ points.
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12/2/2019 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 99 Points
This is a very special wine. Super intense, deep and powerful, yet somehow seamless with very little weight. Starts with a nose of smoked meat, black olives, violets, black licorice and spice box. A powerhouse on the palate, it shows huge mostly black fruit, backed up by earthy and mineral driven flavors. The tannins are amazingly integrated and refined, with wonderful layering and a super sophisticated mouthfeel. Maybe the most amazing quality here is there is nothing flabby at all despite endless fruit intensity. The wine remains focused and firm, with purity and amazing persistence. Better with more air and certainly early for this wine, but fun to experience. Many thanks to CSIMM1161 for providing this beauty at dinner.
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