Fine Wine: New World Wines
Live Virtual Auction, 18 September 2022
New World Wines
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
About this Item
Sine Qua Non is one of California's most famous wine producers. Based just north of Los Angeles in Ventura County, and with most of its vineyards in Santa Barbara, it eschews the usual image of top California wine as being only from Napa Valley. That is not the only thing eschewed at Sine Qua Non – the same wine is rarely made more than once, turning the idea of the American icon wine on its head.
The brand has become a cult favorite since its beginnings. Small volumes mean that demand has consistently outstripped supply and, like many top Californian producers, Sine Qua Non has employed a mailing list to sell wines directly to customers. The wines fetch top prices on the secondary market, often reaching more than $1000, and occasionally much higher: in 2014, a single bottle of Sine Qua Non rosé from the 1995 vintage fetched $42,780 at auction.
Provenance
Coats Family cellar.
Critics Ratings
‘The soon-to-be-released 2006 A Shot in the Dark is composed of 96.5% Syrah and 3.5% Viognier from the 11 Confessions Vineyard in the cool Santa Rita Hills. Performing better from bottle than it did from barrel, this prodigious red exhibits incredibly velvety tannins, a seamless style, and no noticeable oak (which is remarkable given the fact it spent 32 months in barrel). Dense purple to the rim with an extraordinary perfume of blueberry pie, blackberries, soy, Asian spices, and hints of forest floor and charcoal, this is a complex, rich, seamless, well-balanced tour de force in winemaking. A full-bodied, exuberant, unabashedly California Syrah, it will offer stunning drinking over the next 10-15+ years.’ - Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, 100/100 (Aug 2010)
‘This transforms into an amazingly detailed wine, deep, rich, layered and full-bodied, musclebound yet graceful. It's packed with dense, focused and pure mineral, blackberry, toasty oak and roasted coffee flavors that end in a long cascade, veering into tasty chocolate malt ball notes. Awfully tempting now, but sure to reward cellaring. Best from 2012 through 2024. 442 cases made.’ - James Laube, Wine Spectator, 98/100 (Mar 2011)
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