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
‘This remains an historic wine and probably the greatest Grenache (95% Grenache and 5% Syrah) made in California up to this timeline. A classic casebook in the glories of Grenache, this wine, which does have a little Syrah in it, has a dense plum/ruby color and an explosive nose of kirsch liqueur, incense, wood spice, pepper and earth. Ripe, full-bodied, and opulent, with a velvety texture, a magnificent, multi-layered, skyscraper-like mouthfeel, yet no sense of heaviness or any jagged edges, this is a glorious, voluptuously textured Grenache that scores high on all hedonistic and intellectual levels.’ - Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, 100/100 (Aug 2011)
‘Saturated ruby-red. Exotic aromas of liqueur-like red fruits, spice cake, chocolate, gunflint, bonfire, walnut and scotch. Sweet, thick and creamy, with rather wild, deep flavors of raspberry, blackberry, flint and minerals. Almost too much, yet this lush, superripe wine somehow avoids coming off as heavy. This has wonderful fruit and length, finishing with thoroughly ripe, sweet tannins. In style, this is very much like top Chateauneuf-du-Pape for a very ripe year.’ - Stephen Tanzer, Vinous, 92/100 (May 2003)