5 hour slo-ox served over 2 days. Expressive intense blackberry, coffee, coal, glycerin. Sweet fruit balanced with dusty tannins and a fresh acidity. Honestly didn't see any excess influence of alcohol and wouldn't know this was a grenache had I not read the label. Yum!
Bought a few more of these to play with because this has been a perplexing bottle. I am starting to think there is some bottle variation with these as this is the second bottle (of four) that I have tried that has felt a bit stuck. On Pnp day 1 this was incredibly floral, so much so that for a minute I thought the wrong soap had been used on the decanter. But no, I had washed 2 at the same time and the other one had no aromas. First taste was wound up and tart with cherries, plums cranberries. Put back in bottle and corked, left at cellar temp overnight. This has worked well previously and brought out the sweeter notes and complexity. Day 2 seems almost shut down. With aggressive swirling violets and plums on the nose. Tart fruit on the palate and bitter chocolate with a long finish. But not as expressive or complex as I would have hoped. No green notes (none of the nettles of my last bottle ) and very astringent. I will give this another day and see if it wakes up. Otherwise a big waste of $200+
Edit: day 3 there was some evolution, a little more on the nose, some licorice. But mostly bitter woody tannins. I have to conclude that this bottle was flawed
As the main wine with our New Years Day celebration opened four hours in advance and decanted. The nose was fruit and floral. The palate was blackberry, dark cherry, currants, charred meat, tobacco and chocolate leading to a very long finish.
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PNP. Initially a bit tight, showing nice blacks fruits with acidic tension. In time with aggressive swirling this integrated quite nicely and rounded out pretty well and showed good underlying spice. Still years of enjoyment ahead, this was quite good, yet missing the velvety feel I recall from other vintages. Perhaps a good decant of 2 hours would help here.
Previous note stands. Slighr drop off in intesnity of nose and on the palate. Beautiful nose of violets and other floral notes. Needs several hour decant. Very nice wine.
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Dark garnet color in the glass, clear looking throughout. Nose of thatch, boysenberry, roasted meat, black berries and plums. Rich flavors of black berries, black cherries, boysenberries and raspberries. Medium acidity, medium tannin, full bodied. Drink with a little air to help open up or hold.
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A beautiful wine. Then again, anyone is lucky enough to be in the path of this wine when it is opened. The person who opened this is notoriously tough on themselves if the bottle isn't a rockstar right out of the gate! And...was it a rockstar out of the gate? Maybe a bit 😂... Full bodied red fruits and red fruit cotton candy. Black cherry Starburst. There was a lot of dense, thick youthful red fruits here and that is saying something for this wine at 9yr old. Drink, or hold...for just about forever....this wine is beautiful, but IMO I have had Lato, Kamen and other RRV wines that have been just elegant at a fraction of the price. Overall impression? Meh. 92 at best.
Impressive nose of dark fruit and floral notes. Full bodied but light on the tongue, balanced, smooth tannins. Very slight green tones on the late finish, otherwise a potential perfect wine. Just a delight.
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Opened in the bottle several hours but could have used a decant. My prior note holds well. No hurry to drink these but not a waste to open now. Much more structured than the 2012 Stein.
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This was a lovely wine. Very close to being in its perfect spot to drink. Paired perfectly with grass fed ribeyes, frog bench farms roasted carrots and beets, frog bench farms green salad, and bucatini pasta with a homemade lemon, pinenut, parmasean and basil sauce. Was great to share with Ryan, Libby, Greg, Jen and Jennifer at the end of Morgan's school year on our new back patio. Followed unbelievable appetizers, including bone marrow, and the world's best cheese plate. I love to share wines with the right people, and tonight, this was great to share with Greg. This wine had great fruit, tannins on the soft side, balance, and was soft on the tongue. Like silk. This is the time to drink this wine. Don't wait. It was lovely. Cheers. (Decanted for two hours, which was perfect)
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Almost a year since my last bottle.....this one provided by Jen for our 2nd day of our event.
12 hour decant.......and still not enough for my full enjoyment? Dark fruited entry with a bit of a tart ending to it on the back palate. Noticeable alcohol in this bottle along with an herbaceous note, some here voted akin to thistle or nettle? I personally think maybe this one needs a few more years in bottle.....for my very llimited SQN experience the '07 and '12s from earlier today/tonight were more ready for consumption and in my wheel house.
Addendum to note from the other night.....had a small glass from the fridge the next evening.....immensely better so once again, Jen the DQ was right! Much smoother and approachable, no harsh tannic structure. I'd probably give it a 94+ at this stage.
Wineapolooza in Atlanta; 5/21/2021-5/23/2021 (My house): I have had this wine a few times now and it has always been better the next day. This time I decided to do an all day decant, thinking that would be enough time. When we tried it that night it was underwhelming. Mark and Jaime were sure it was passed it’s prime or we had missed the window. But 24 hours later this was singing! Full of juicy fruit, a nettle like astringency, carmelized strawberries. All the complexity came out, an absolute delight. Went from a 90 to a 95!!!
Twelve hour decant. Very deep rosy ruby color. Juicy Fruit gum, caramel covered strawberry, and thistle on the nose. Smooth, dry palate. Full tannins on the longish finish.
Possibly over decanted. Too herbaceous for my palate, but clearly well made.
Rhône Variety Tasting hosted by TCWC (Virtual): Ninety minutes in the glass and showing well, with blueberry, black raspberry, pepper, baking spices and Chambord notes. It's big and sweet and ripe and does it in a way that it feels balanced. Flavors of black fruit and pepper with a long finish. As I have said numerous times, Manfred's wines are not something I want to drink every day (even if it were affordable to do so), but these scratch a certain itch. I can't think of anyone doing this style as well as the team at SQN. We both had this ranked fourth in our final rankings. 93-94 pts.
Rhône Variety Tasting hosted by TCWC (Virtual): Blind. Lighter garnet/crimson color. Notes of red berry fruit, spice, cherry and raspberry with a nice herbal overtone. Softer tannins. Flavors of red fruit and warm spices with nice underlying avidity. Balanced.
Rhône varietals with TCWC (Chicago, IL): Burnt rubber and a huge vein of sappy black fruit on the nose. On the attack, this is reasonably attractive with its fruit, but as it sits on the palate, the oaky bitterness and alcoholic burn starts to crescendo. Some prune/raisin flavours on the (unfortunately) longish finish.
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An excellent wine but a bit of an underperformer for Sine Qua Non. Very dark and brooding for a Grenache dominated wine yet still has that floral, flirtatious element. Kirsch, violets, roses, cocoa powder, and a rich earth element. Contrasts aromatic complexity against a structured and tannic brute of a wine. I generally like SQNs early, but this would probably be better in a another 5-10 years; I think.
Popped and poured. This is a medium-red wine with some tongue-staining power. On the nose, I get macerated cherries, raspberries, brush, and a faint touch of heat. In the mouth, this is a juicy and bright wine, one that shows the purity of ripe fruit. The finish is crunchy with some licorice aspects. Overall, this is a nice, ripe, pleasure-bomb of a wine. I am increasingly coming to the view that the SQN Grenache wines are a tad better than the Syrahs (despite my love for the latter grape). As an aside, the oversized bottle is unnecessary and irritating – I have available racking for it, but there is no reason for anyone to make 750s that don’t fit in a standard 750 wine slot; this is not unique to Manfred and didn’t affect my evaluation of this wine, but I don’t think it’s too much to want to use my 1.5L racking for mags, not for unhelpfully oversized 750s (I am looking at you Mounir and Rotem Saouma, both in Burgundy and CdP). 93 points.
Excellent. I had a bottle of this a few months ago and it changed dramatically for the better between first pour and the 12 hours of decant. This time, despite my best efforts, I could not quite get it there. Still, this was a mouthful of tart cherries and plums coated in sweet spice. Fruit leather. Some savory herbs more on the nose than on the palate. Last time it got to an almost carmelized fruit taste which I didn’t get this time. More astringent tannins than the last bottle as well. But alcohol well integrated and overall excellent drinking. I have acquired a few more bottles—one still saving for Mark’s visit, and the others to have a long sleep....
Moved quite bit since my last note 3.5 years ago. Still nicely exuberant, but beginning to show more secondary characteristics, especially herbs. Very nice. Excellent with lamb chops.
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Dark garnet color with a bouquet and flavor of boysenberries, and plums with some mineral notes in the finish. Compared with the prior bottle drunk in 2016, it has lost some of its nuance, depth, and intensity but is still very good.
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My first ever SQN. Popping open the wine, you get a perfumed and fruity bouquet. Explosive yet not overly powerful. I get why a lot of wine connoisseur said they can keep smelling a SQN all day long. Poured a small glass immediately, a whole lot of raspberries and dark cherries that you would expect from a GSM blend. Crispy acidity with sweet tannins. Drank over 8 hours, the wine keeps evolving and began to show more of the spicy and slightly herbal characteristics. The wine is still going very strong, a few more hours (or even another day) might help opening up the wine even better. But I have to admit it's hard to resist from keep pouring glass after glass.
It's a good wine but at the same time not a wow, probably not a fair comment to make since I have extremely high expectation for a SQN. 95+
Gifted this by an aquaintance (thanks Scott!) a few months ago and have been waiting for the right occasion to open.....pnp'd for apps in room prior to dinner at Bern's.....rich red cherry/strawberry/rhubarb fruit. Very grenachey! My notes are from memory and it's a bit hazy after last night, so take it for FWIW.....this was good! Jen had a glass after midnight and reports it's the WOTN, so I'll take her word for it! I'm giving it a very conservative score, but I'm sure it's a good 3-4 points more if given the time to air out. Good right from the pnp but in hindsight, give it a good 6 hours of air!
I was so excited when Mark said he was bringing this one but I had no idea what to expect. We didn’t have much time for decanting when we first tasted it, but it was very tasty and fun—like a big bowl of red fruit. I deliberately saved half a glass for the end of the evening and that is when I had my wow moment—sour cherries and plums coated in caramel. I really have never had anything like it and I would say even better the next morning. Which is saying a lot since the thought of wine at that point was not so appealing!!! So bummed that everyone else missed it, but I have a bottle saved for Mark and Carol’s trip to Atlanta and it will get a looong decant before we drink it! Rating I would say 93/94 when we had the first few glasses, 97 the next morning.
Enjoyed this while cooking, eating, homemade pizza, putting the kids to bed and then binging TopChef. Actually, the perfect context for this wine.
I wouldn’t use words like “perfect”, and this wine seems like it would shrug off any technical compliments or semi-precise tasting notes. It’s the person you invite to the dinner party to get everyone talking and interacting with each other... the social glue. You can enjoy it by itself or with food, young or old, decanted or popped. It’s just so damned friendly that you can’t help but smile and like it (even if it’s a bit obnoxiously expensive). What a fun wine.
Ample acidity, milk chocolate, sour cherry, plum, and dried fruit leather like you’d take on a camping trip. Best glass was 4+ hours in.
Drank at a local restaurant after an hour of decanting and after a bottle of predominately Sangiovese based wine. I found this wine to be full of ripe cherries on the nose and these same flavours and some caramel were in the glass. I do recall quite the long finish on this wine as well.
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Decanted 2.5 hours. Bright red fruit profile with strawberry and raspberry tones hitting first. As the nose develops, some really nice spice notes start to emerge, wood spice and herbal notes. Round mouthfeel. Palate is balanced, but finish shows the weight, including the alcohol.
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double decant and aired at cellar temp for 5 hours Fat rubber tire smell on pouring blew off and left herbaceous earth and slight smoke. Palate was pretty fruit but echoed some of the aromas toward the finish
I feel with long decant it is just starting to be ready Give it time and air
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SQN & BBQ (The Krengels - Bannockburn IL): Small glass, brief note from memory. Also still painfully young and ripe, but with so much density and a near semblance of balance. I found it tough to completely enjoy right now, but liked it more vs 2 years ago, so am very optimistic for its future.
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Smokin Meat and Serious Syrah 2.0 (Westport, CT): It's a wine that has some special memories as I used it to celebrate a big work milestone a few years ago. And I'm generally partial to the Grenache. Some of the younger versions of these I've found to be fairly high octane, but this did seem quite drinkable. Again more hedonistic in style. There's a bit of the spices that helps with the fruit. All intense but with just a touch of later acid to add balance. I thought a bit overshadowed by Colgin Syrah tonight.
Deep garnet color with a bouquet and flavor that is dry but nonetheless candied with a perfect amalgam of plums, boysenberries, and dark cherries seamlessly extending into a very long finish. Wonderful balance despite great depth making for marvelous purity of flavor. This is a WOW wine. SQN came through again. No better Grenache in the world.
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This clear wine was decanted for 45 minutes prior to drinking at a local restaurant. It was clear and mid deep red in colour with a muted nose of candied cherries and a hint of caramel. When tasting, I got flavours of those cherries along with some caramel and a hint of vanilla. The acidity and tannins were in a good place yet the wine seemed slightly disjointed. Usually this wine is very smooth but tonight, the various flavours seemed to be not mixing together properly. Strange.
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Quick multiple decants here seemed to do the trick. Yes it’s sweet but it’s also incredibly layered and somewhat balanced. Dense/syrupy red fruit, milk chocolate, anise, sage, and vanilla bean. A decent amount of acidity along with a graphite note provides lift. Alcohol is well hidden. My guess is the best years slate still going to be around age 10.
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Really slow start - sweet, candied red fruit, and seemed like an Australian Grenache (not a good thing). After about four hours in the decanter, it started to flesh out, gain depth, and lose the sweetness. If i hadn’t known it was an SQN, I would have given up on it. But, I blinded several people early and late, the early people were not impressed, the later people loved it. Seems right.
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Rich notes of kirsch, candied cherry, raspberry, and faint olive. Really wonderful texture in the mouth, tannins nicely polished and just so smooth. Such a fun wine to consume. Delicious!
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Deep ruby red with garnet hue. Complex nose with layers of olives, anise, floral, twigs, brambles, strawberries and cherries. Rounded tannins (6.5/10) and medium to medium plus body. Well balance throughout. Love the texture on the palate with layers of strawberries, twigs, graphite, violets and herbs. Long and lingering finish. Drink till 2029.
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Totally and perhaps more than adorable, the 2013 SQN Grenache is showing one of its better sides tonight. The nose reveals a massive attack of flowers, lilac, violets and that deep profoound dark mature Grenache fruit. There is also a freshness and purity to the wine that I find only in the very best Grenaches I taste. SQNs are normally extremely integrated and balanced - which is certainly true also for this effort. Tannins are present but very enjoyable and actually quite integrated despite this wine's youth. With a few more years of bottle age this wine will turn into an even more beautiful swan. Lovely! (score is 98+)
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Naples Boys Lunch: Showy smooth rich dark chocolate covered cherries. Pure yum. Not sure if this gets very complex, but offers up massive pleasure for hedonists. This was the second place wine of the night among some real stars. Just beat out a 2012 Old Sparky.
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WOTN for me, nose of grass, straw and ripe cherries; palette of chewy choc, vanilla, granite, hinting at complex secondary flavours to come. Depth concentration and unending finish. Watch this wine and its brother, they might well be the next Poker Face.
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Beautiful. Nice sweet and sour black berry and chocolate cherries with some savory spices. This however, is really all about texture right now as it is lush, yet very well balanced.
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I get blackberry pie in the nose and violets on the nose, more cherry and vanilla on the palate. Really full bodied, high acid, high tannin but well balanced. Fun for a tase now but needs way more time to mellow.
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My bday and SQN seem to go hand and hand...a great way to celebrate! Little tight after only a 30min decant, should probably let air out for a few hours. Dark red berry fruits, extracted and liqueured with somewhat muscular tannins, more astringent acid than I'm use to in sqn, but I'm sure will integrate nicely with some air. Bright and perfumed florals...licorice, chocolate cherry cordials, graphite powder, white pepper, clove oak barrel spice. Might be my palate after a horrendous work week, but this seems like an angry woman at this point? Not the silky smooth feminine balance....very aggressive and pissed off? Do see huge potential for greatness here...LOVE the 88% whole cluster funk, dancing around with some pretty tasty floral and herb spices...but just needs to come together. Will save some for tomorrow and report back...but for now HOLD these for a few years. ++pts 78% Grenache, 19% Syrah and 3% Mourvèdre
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Opened by VM at Adelle's with some of the CWM. This had been decanted about 12 hours prior to dinner, but it could certainly use more time in decanter or cellar. Red and black fruits on the nose and palate, with something on the finish that was somehow sweet. Very nice.
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Decanted 12 hours before dinner. 78% Grenache, 19% Syrah and 3% Mourvedre. 88% whole cluster. 15.7% alcohol. Crimson color. Grapes nose. Notes of elderberry, charcoal, dark chocolate and licorice. The alcohol was not prevalent. Moderate tannins for being so young. Long finish and full mouth feel. Definitely more feminine that the SQN Male that I had last month and more approachable at this point. 95 points..
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A great wine in the making. Needs at least 5 years to hit the right stride. Deep color and good alcohol level. Sharp but not abnormal for its age. Mellow with decanting and tells of the future to come. Barnyard funk, rosemary and dried grass aromas. Definitely central CA Syrah influenced. Good wine tonight but will be better with some sleep.
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beautiful nose, but quite frankly that's all its got atm. I am not experienced enough to judge its potential, but for the moment there is simply not enough body nor weight. Decanted and drank from hour 2-4
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For the SQN lover, what's not to like here? Huge lifted aromatics that are very typical with sexy red and black fruits and exotic spice accents. The palate is rich yet weightless. A bit un-evolved and even a bit boring at this stage. But tons of stuffing.
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Good Wine with an Exciting Super Bowl (Chez Kailin - Northbrook IL): Still extremely ripe and dense, seeming too ultra ripe for now. At the same time there is great concentration that gives me confidence this will become very enjoyable with a few more years in the cellar.
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Loved this wine. First Grenache I've tried. And the first bottle I drank since joining the mailing list.
The legs are medium. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like stoniness and black pepper. The body is full. The wine has silky texture. The wine finishes long. The wine has low acidity.
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Deep and dark. Both the notes coming out of the glass and on the pallete were black cherry, blackberry liqueur. This wine has a tremendous mouthfeel and balance: It's jammy, the tannins are just starting to soften, good acidity and has a nice long finish that left me kind of smacking my lips and reaching right away for another sip. I'd like to sock a few more bottles of this away and think it'll be pretty special not too far off.
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Quite dark violet purple. Pretty big, though somewhat monolithic nose of dark red fruit and vanilla. Decanted for a few hours. Drank very smoothly, excellent mouthfeel (full bodied yet somehow elegant). Tastes excellent (bright red/blue fruit, spice, vanilla), though pretty muted, clearly needing some more time in bottle to blossom. Should be pretty special in a few years.
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I double decanted this prior to leaving for the restaurant, where it was served with our entrees roughly four hours after the cork was pulled. Brief notes. Violet, lavender and raspberry aromas; there's an elegance here. Cherry, currant and raspberry along with vanilla and spice accents and a long finish. Dense and concentrated but also elegant and light. Excellent.
Tasted at the WINEBID.COM 20th anniversary NYC tasting.
One of the bigger wines of the night. Really up-front sweet fruits. Fully ripened prunes, silky sweet liquors on the palette. Modest and faint tannin's were present but were simply overwhelmed by the size of this thing. Shockingly outrageous wine ......I loved it
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The obvious deep, dark color lets you know this is a powerful, concentrated wine loaded with layers of sweet, dark red fruits, spice, licorice, black cherry liqueur, jam and vanilla. Rich, fat, polished, sweet juicy fruits line your palate in the lengthy finish. The wine was made from a blend that would be right at home in Chateauneuf du Pape using 78% Grenache, 19% Syrah and 3% Mourvedre.
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This bottle was drank at home without decanting. It was almost perfectly clear and garnet red in colour and had a bouquet of mostly cherries with a hint of apples and a noticeable yeast smell on immediate opening. The major taste on this was of red cherries alongside of some chocolate. The tannins were surprisingly strong and the acidity was low and this actually created a nice balance for this bottle. I found this to be the earliest approachable SQN wine that I have had and I'm looking forward to seeing how these age.
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Drank side by side with the Syrah at a steak dinner. This was excellent - more toned down than the Syrah and a lot lighter on the palette. Too young to be drinking right now and even with a decant it was a bit more primary than I really expect for an SQN. Lovely balance though between the fruit and leather and tobacco and more savory flavors. If drunk by themselves i think I would have preferred this, but the Syrah just complemented the steak so well.
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Sweet dark fruit on the nose, raspberry liquor, palate is silky with a finish of fairly moderate tannins, very young and needs a min of 3 years. Very good as usual with this producer, I'd be interested in trying this again in a few years. It doesn't seem to match up to some of the epic Grenache's they've had in the past as I don't get all the secondary characteristics I normally would but this is great stuff!
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Decanted and consumed over three hours. Great nose, and I think it will be really good, but this needs some time to settle down. Recommend holding for a couple of years.
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2/11/2024 - Burgundy Al wrote:
Good Wine with an Exciting Super Bowl (The Krengels - Bannockburn IL): Walkaround tasting. A rare lackluster bottle from SQN, this seemed slightly stewed, so perhaps heat damaged.
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1/17/2024 - Elkcims Likes this wine: 97 Points
5 hour slo-ox served over 2 days. Expressive intense blackberry, coffee, coal, glycerin. Sweet fruit balanced with dusty tannins and a fresh acidity. Honestly didn't see any excess influence of alcohol and wouldn't know this was a grenache had I not read the label. Yum!
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11/23/2023 - bablues wrote: 97 Points
An elegant stunner
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1/28/2023 - Decanting Queen wrote: flawed
Bought a few more of these to play with because this has been a perplexing bottle. I am starting to think there is some bottle variation with these as this is the second bottle (of four) that I have tried that has felt a bit stuck.
On Pnp day 1 this was incredibly floral, so much so that for a minute I thought the wrong soap had been used on the decanter. But no, I had washed 2 at the same time and the other one had no aromas. First taste was wound up and tart with cherries, plums cranberries. Put back in bottle and corked, left at cellar temp overnight. This has worked well previously and brought out the sweeter notes and complexity.
Day 2 seems almost shut down. With aggressive swirling violets and plums on the nose. Tart fruit on the palate and bitter chocolate with a long finish. But not as expressive or complex as I would have hoped. No green notes (none of the nettles of my last bottle ) and very astringent.
I will give this another day and see if it wakes up. Otherwise a big waste of $200+
Edit: day 3 there was some evolution, a little more on the nose, some licorice. But mostly bitter woody tannins. I have to conclude that this bottle was flawed
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1/1/2023 - markcic Likes this wine: 95 Points
As the main wine with our New Years Day celebration opened four hours in advance and decanted. The nose was fruit and floral. The palate was blackberry, dark cherry, currants, charred meat, tobacco and chocolate leading to a very long finish.
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12/26/2022 - KenK Likes this wine: 93 Points
PNP. Initially a bit tight, showing nice blacks fruits with acidic tension. In time with aggressive swirling this integrated quite nicely and rounded out pretty well and showed good underlying spice. Still years of enjoyment ahead, this was quite good, yet missing the velvety feel I recall from other vintages. Perhaps a good decant of 2 hours would help here.
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10/27/2022 - Geoff Likes this wine: 94 Points
Previous note stands. Slighr drop off in intesnity of nose and on the palate. Beautiful nose of violets and other floral notes. Needs several hour decant. Very nice wine.
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8/30/2022 - wineismylife wrote: 95 Points
WIML95
Tasted non blind.
Dark garnet color in the glass, clear looking throughout. Nose of thatch, boysenberry, roasted meat, black berries and plums. Rich flavors of black berries, black cherries, boysenberries and raspberries. Medium acidity, medium tannin, full bodied. Drink with a little air to help open up or hold.
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7/18/2022 - Amerique wrote: 92 Points
eccentric, disappointing
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3/12/2022 - Kansas1955 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Very rich fruit but not over whelming. Liked the smooth finish
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2/19/2022 - robertek wrote: 92 Points
Not the nose I am used to. Maybe this should've been drunk by now ... Good but not great and yet quite balanced
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1/28/2022 - mflesh wrote:
A beautiful wine. Then again, anyone is lucky enough to be in the path of this wine when it is opened. The person who opened this is notoriously tough on themselves if the bottle isn't a rockstar right out of the gate! And...was it a rockstar out of the gate? Maybe a bit 😂... Full bodied red fruits and red fruit cotton candy. Black cherry Starburst. There was a lot of dense, thick youthful red fruits here and that is saying something for this wine at 9yr old. Drink, or hold...for just about forever....this wine is beautiful, but IMO I have had Lato, Kamen and other RRV wines that have been just elegant at a fraction of the price. Overall impression? Meh. 92 at best.
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12/24/2021 - Geoff Likes this wine: 98 Points
Impressive nose of dark fruit and floral notes. Full bodied but light on the tongue, balanced, smooth tannins. Very slight green tones on the late finish, otherwise a potential perfect wine. Just a delight.
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12/23/2021 - Gott vin Likes this wine: 93 Points
Fantastisk doft. Mångbottnad. Lika med smaken. Ett otroligt bra vin.
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12/11/2021 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote: 95 Points
Opened in the bottle several hours but could have used a decant. My prior note holds well. No hurry to drink these but not a waste to open now. Much more structured than the 2012 Stein.
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11/20/2021 - cubswinws Likes this wine: 95 Points
Exceptional. Big and rich but not at all out of balance. Finish last 5-6 mins.
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6/11/2021 - A&C Likes this wine: 94 Points
This was a lovely wine. Very close to being in its perfect spot to drink. Paired perfectly with grass fed ribeyes, frog bench farms roasted carrots and beets, frog bench farms green salad, and bucatini pasta with a homemade lemon, pinenut, parmasean and basil sauce. Was great to share with Ryan, Libby, Greg, Jen and Jennifer at the end of Morgan's school year on our new back patio. Followed unbelievable appetizers, including bone marrow, and the world's best cheese plate. I love to share wines with the right people, and tonight, this was great to share with Greg. This wine had great fruit, tannins on the soft side, balance, and was soft on the tongue. Like silk. This is the time to drink this wine. Don't wait. It was lovely. Cheers. (Decanted for two hours, which was perfect)
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5/23/2021 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 92 Points
Almost a year since my last bottle.....this one provided by Jen for our 2nd day of our event.
12 hour decant.......and still not enough for my full enjoyment? Dark fruited entry with a bit of a tart ending to it on the back palate. Noticeable alcohol in this bottle along with an herbaceous note, some here voted akin to thistle or nettle? I personally think maybe this one needs a few more years in bottle.....for my very llimited SQN experience the '07 and '12s from earlier today/tonight were more ready for consumption and in my wheel house.
Addendum to note from the other night.....had a small glass from the fridge the next evening.....immensely better so once again, Jen the DQ was right! Much smoother and approachable, no harsh tannic structure. I'd probably give it a 94+ at this stage.
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5/22/2021 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine: 95 Points
Wineapolooza in Atlanta; 5/21/2021-5/23/2021 (My house): I have had this wine a few times now and it has always been better the next day. This time I decided to do an all day decant, thinking that would be enough time. When we tried it that night it was underwhelming. Mark and Jaime were sure it was passed it’s prime or we had missed the window. But 24 hours later this was singing! Full of juicy fruit, a nettle like astringency, carmelized strawberries. All the complexity came out, an absolute delight. Went from a 90 to a 95!!!
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5/22/2021 - AGELVIS wrote: 90 Points
Twelve hour decant. Very deep rosy ruby color. Juicy Fruit gum, caramel covered strawberry, and thistle on the nose. Smooth, dry palate. Full tannins on the longish finish.
Possibly over decanted. Too herbaceous for my palate, but clearly well made.
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4/11/2021 - vetty wrote: 90 Points
Decanted 3 hours prior to serving. nose is super attractive. very flat on the palate. maybe not fully open? couldn't feel the structure.
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2/18/2021 - AllRed wrote: 93 Points
Rhône Variety Tasting hosted by TCWC (Virtual): Ninety minutes in the glass and showing well, with blueberry, black raspberry, pepper, baking spices and Chambord notes. It's big and sweet and ripe and does it in a way that it feels balanced. Flavors of black fruit and pepper with a long finish. As I have said numerous times, Manfred's wines are not something I want to drink every day (even if it were affordable to do so), but these scratch a certain itch. I can't think of anyone doing this style as well as the team at SQN. We both had this ranked fourth in our final rankings. 93-94 pts.
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2/18/2021 - AllRed wrote: 94 Points
Rhône Variety Tasting hosted by TCWC (Virtual): Blind. Lighter garnet/crimson color. Notes of red berry fruit, spice, cherry and raspberry with a nice herbal overtone. Softer tannins. Flavors of red fruit and warm spices with nice underlying avidity. Balanced.
My #2 (guessed Prefert)
Domino’s #3 (Cayuse)
2nd overall, 5 pts
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2/18/2021 - acyso wrote: 83 Points
Rhône varietals with TCWC (Chicago, IL): Burnt rubber and a huge vein of sappy black fruit on the nose. On the attack, this is reasonably attractive with its fruit, but as it sits on the palate, the oaky bitterness and alcoholic burn starts to crescendo. Some prune/raisin flavours on the (unfortunately) longish finish.
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1/15/2021 - brettay wrote: 93 Points
An excellent wine but a bit of an underperformer for Sine Qua Non. Very dark and brooding for a Grenache dominated wine yet still has that floral, flirtatious element. Kirsch, violets, roses, cocoa powder, and a rich earth element. Contrasts aromatic complexity against a structured and tannic brute of a wine. I generally like SQNs early, but this would probably be better in a another 5-10 years; I think.
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11/8/2020 - whitmanlholt Likes this wine: 93 Points
Popped and poured. This is a medium-red wine with some tongue-staining power. On the nose, I get macerated cherries, raspberries, brush, and a faint touch of heat. In the mouth, this is a juicy and bright wine, one that shows the purity of ripe fruit. The finish is crunchy with some licorice aspects. Overall, this is a nice, ripe, pleasure-bomb of a wine. I am increasingly coming to the view that the SQN Grenache wines are a tad better than the Syrahs (despite my love for the latter grape). As an aside, the oversized bottle is unnecessary and irritating – I have available racking for it, but there is no reason for anyone to make 750s that don’t fit in a standard 750 wine slot; this is not unique to Manfred and didn’t affect my evaluation of this wine, but I don’t think it’s too much to want to use my 1.5L racking for mags, not for unhelpfully oversized 750s (I am looking at you Mounir and Rotem Saouma, both in Burgundy and CdP). 93 points.
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9/12/2020 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine: 95 Points
Excellent. I had a bottle of this a few months ago and it changed dramatically for the better between first pour and the 12 hours of decant. This time, despite my best efforts, I could not quite get it there. Still, this was a mouthful of tart cherries and plums coated in sweet spice. Fruit leather. Some savory herbs more on the nose than on the palate. Last time it got to an almost carmelized fruit taste which I didn’t get this time. More astringent tannins than the last bottle as well. But alcohol well integrated and overall excellent drinking. I have acquired a few more bottles—one still saving for Mark’s visit, and the others to have a long sleep....
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8/31/2020 - cadamson Likes this wine:
Moved quite bit since my last note 3.5 years ago. Still nicely exuberant, but beginning to show more secondary characteristics, especially herbs. Very nice. Excellent with lamb chops.
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7/26/2020 - tcosgriff Likes this wine: 94 Points
Dark garnet color with a bouquet and flavor of boysenberries, and plums with some mineral notes in the finish. Compared with the prior bottle drunk in 2016, it has lost some of its nuance, depth, and intensity but is still very good.
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7/25/2020 - TheThirdTwin Likes this wine: 95 Points
My first ever SQN. Popping open the wine, you get a perfumed and fruity bouquet. Explosive yet not overly powerful. I get why a lot of wine connoisseur said they can keep smelling a SQN all day long. Poured a small glass immediately, a whole lot of raspberries and dark cherries that you would expect from a GSM blend. Crispy acidity with sweet tannins. Drank over 8 hours, the wine keeps evolving and began to show more of the spicy and slightly herbal characteristics. The wine is still going very strong, a few more hours (or even another day) might help opening up the wine even better. But I have to admit it's hard to resist from keep pouring glass after glass.
It's a good wine but at the same time not a wow, probably not a fair comment to make since I have extremely high expectation for a SQN. 95+
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6/28/2020 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 93 Points
Gifted this by an aquaintance (thanks Scott!) a few months ago and have been waiting for the right occasion to open.....pnp'd for apps in room prior to dinner at Bern's.....rich red cherry/strawberry/rhubarb fruit. Very grenachey! My notes are from memory and it's a bit hazy after last night, so take it for FWIW.....this was good! Jen had a glass after midnight and reports it's the WOTN, so I'll take her word for it! I'm giving it a very conservative score, but I'm sure it's a good 3-4 points more if given the time to air out. Good right from the pnp but in hindsight, give it a good 6 hours of air!
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6/27/2020 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine: 97 Points
I was so excited when Mark said he was bringing this one but I had no idea what to expect. We didn’t have much time for decanting when we first tasted it, but it was very tasty and fun—like a big bowl of red fruit. I deliberately saved half a glass for the end of the evening and that is when I had my wow moment—sour cherries and plums coated in caramel. I really have never had anything like it and I would say even better the next morning. Which is saying a lot since the thought of wine at that point was not so appealing!!! So bummed that everyone else missed it, but I have a bottle saved for Mark and Carol’s trip to Atlanta and it will get a looong decant before we drink it!
Rating I would say 93/94 when we had the first few glasses, 97 the next morning.
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6/6/2020 - Jahull03 wrote:
Enjoyed this while cooking, eating, homemade pizza, putting the kids to bed and then binging TopChef. Actually, the perfect context for this wine.
I wouldn’t use words like “perfect”, and this wine seems like it would shrug off any technical compliments or semi-precise tasting notes. It’s the person you invite to the dinner party to get everyone talking and interacting with each other... the social glue. You can enjoy it by itself or with food, young or old, decanted or popped. It’s just so damned friendly that you can’t help but smile and like it (even if it’s a bit obnoxiously expensive). What a fun wine.
Ample acidity, milk chocolate, sour cherry, plum, and dried fruit leather like you’d take on a camping trip. Best glass was 4+ hours in.
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3/22/2020 - BROpus One Likes this wine: 94 Points
Super jammy and plum/dark fruit. This is a bit different but we really enjoyed it as the night went on. 3+ hour decant and drank over 2 hours.
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2/14/2020 - Rosengoo wrote: 95 Points
Drank at a local restaurant after an hour of decanting and after a bottle of predominately Sangiovese based wine. I found this wine to be full of ripe cherries on the nose and these same flavours and some caramel were in the glass. I do recall quite the long finish on this wine as well.
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1/17/2020 - aquacongas Likes this wine: 94 Points
not blind
dark berries, oak well integrated, vwry strong and concentrated but not marmelade. 94-95
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11/22/2019 - AllRed wrote: 94 Points
Candied raspberry and cranberry, florals and a bit of spice. Raspberry and cherry, clay, white pepper and currant. Long finish.
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11/16/2019 - ews3 wrote: 94 Points
Decanted 2.5 hours. Bright red fruit profile with strawberry and raspberry tones hitting first. As the nose develops, some really nice spice notes start to emerge, wood spice and herbal notes. Round mouthfeel. Palate is balanced, but finish shows the weight, including the alcohol.
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10/31/2019 - VoteferPedro Likes this wine:
double decant and aired at cellar temp for 5 hours
Fat rubber tire smell on pouring blew off and left herbaceous earth and slight smoke.
Palate was pretty fruit but echoed some of the aromas toward the finish
I feel with long decant it is just starting to be ready
Give it time and air
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9/8/2019 - Griffeyfan04 wrote:
Very heavy and plum like. Hoping this comes together in 5-7 years
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8/17/2019 - Burgundy Al wrote:
SQN & BBQ (The Krengels - Bannockburn IL): Small glass, brief note from memory. Also still painfully young and ripe, but with so much density and a near semblance of balance. I found it tough to completely enjoy right now, but liked it more vs 2 years ago, so am very optimistic for its future.
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8/10/2019 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Smokin Meat and Serious Syrah 2.0 (Westport, CT): It's a wine that has some special memories as I used it to celebrate a big work milestone a few years ago. And I'm generally partial to the Grenache. Some of the younger versions of these I've found to be fairly high octane, but this did seem quite drinkable. Again more hedonistic in style. There's a bit of the spices that helps with the fruit. All intense but with just a touch of later acid to add balance. I thought a bit overshadowed by Colgin Syrah tonight.
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7/28/2019 - tcosgriff Likes this wine: 98 Points
Deep garnet color with a bouquet and flavor that is dry but nonetheless candied with a perfect amalgam of plums, boysenberries, and dark cherries seamlessly extending into a very long finish. Wonderful balance despite great depth making for marvelous purity of flavor. This is a WOW wine. SQN came through again. No better Grenache in the world.
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6/13/2019 - Rosengoo wrote: 89 Points
This clear wine was decanted for 45 minutes prior to drinking at a local restaurant. It was clear and mid deep red in colour with a muted nose of candied cherries and a hint of caramel. When tasting, I got flavours of those cherries along with some caramel and a hint of vanilla. The acidity and tannins were in a good place yet the wine seemed slightly disjointed. Usually this wine is very smooth but tonight, the various flavours seemed to be not mixing together properly. Strange.
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5/26/2019 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote: 97 Points
Quick multiple decants here seemed to do the trick. Yes it’s sweet but it’s also incredibly layered and somewhat balanced. Dense/syrupy red fruit, milk chocolate, anise, sage, and vanilla bean. A decent amount of acidity along with a graphite note provides lift. Alcohol is well hidden. My guess is the best years slate still going to be around age 10.
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5/11/2019 - Cow Town Likes this wine:
Really slow start - sweet, candied red fruit, and seemed like an Australian Grenache (not a good thing). After about four hours in the decanter, it started to flesh out, gain depth, and lose the sweetness. If i hadn’t known it was an SQN, I would have given up on it. But, I blinded several people early and late, the early people were not impressed, the later people loved it. Seems right.
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2/7/2019 - tcarter Likes this wine: 96 Points
Great stuff. Hints of green on the nose and palette.
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11/22/2018 - bubbachumps wrote: 95 Points
Rich notes of kirsch, candied cherry, raspberry, and faint olive. Really wonderful texture in the mouth, tannins nicely polished and just so smooth. Such a fun wine to consume. Delicious!
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6/12/2018 - Millennial Drinkers wrote: 96 Points
Deep ruby red with garnet hue. Complex nose with layers of olives, anise, floral, twigs, brambles, strawberries and cherries. Rounded tannins (6.5/10) and medium to medium plus body. Well balance throughout. Love the texture on the palate with layers of strawberries, twigs, graphite, violets and herbs. Long and lingering finish. Drink till 2029.
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5/18/2018 - Christoffer78 Likes this wine: 98 Points
Totally and perhaps more than adorable, the 2013 SQN Grenache is showing one of its better sides tonight. The nose reveals a massive attack of flowers, lilac, violets and that deep profoound dark mature Grenache fruit. There is also a freshness and purity to the wine that I find only in the very best Grenaches I taste. SQNs are normally extremely integrated and balanced - which is certainly true also for this effort. Tannins are present but very enjoyable and actually quite integrated despite this wine's youth. With a few more years of bottle age this wine will turn into an even more beautiful swan. Lovely! (score is 98+)
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12/15/2017 - KenK Likes this wine: 95 Points
Naples Boys Lunch: Showy smooth rich dark chocolate covered cherries. Pure yum. Not sure if this gets very complex, but offers up massive pleasure for hedonists. This was the second place wine of the night among some real stars. Just beat out a 2012 Old Sparky.
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11/30/2017 - bengti Likes this wine: 96 Points
HK Wine Society Tasting and Dinner JW Marriott HK
WOTN for me, nose of grass, straw and ripe cherries; palette of chewy choc, vanilla, granite, hinting at complex secondary flavours to come. Depth concentration and unending finish. Watch this wine and its brother, they might well be the next Poker Face.
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10/14/2017 - Busguy1 wrote:
Excellent
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10/9/2017 - KenK Likes this wine: 94 Points
Beautiful. Nice sweet and sour black berry and chocolate cherries with some savory spices. This however, is really all about texture right now as it is lush, yet very well balanced.
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7/14/2017 - ryonlife wrote: 93 Points
I get blackberry pie in the nose and violets on the nose, more cherry and vanilla on the palate. Really full bodied, high acid, high tannin but well balanced. Fun for a tase now but needs way more time to mellow.
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6/19/2017 - J @ y H @ c k Likes this wine:
LBTG - 3 hour decant not enough
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5/13/2017 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Weekend in London; 5/12/2017-5/13/2017 (Ledbury, Il Baretto, Hedonsim): Fabulous wine. Has a great sweet spice to it. Very lush and rich and pretty and tasty. Hints of lavender and floral. Very compelling. One of my favorites of the tasting at Hedonism.
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5/5/2017 - Mrbuzz Likes this wine: 92 Points
My bday and SQN seem to go hand and hand...a great way to celebrate! Little tight after only a 30min decant, should probably let air out for a few hours. Dark red berry fruits, extracted and liqueured with somewhat muscular tannins, more astringent acid than I'm use to in sqn, but I'm sure will integrate nicely with some air. Bright and perfumed florals...licorice, chocolate cherry cordials, graphite powder, white pepper, clove oak barrel spice. Might be my palate after a horrendous work week, but this seems like an angry woman at this point? Not the silky smooth feminine balance....very aggressive and pissed off? Do see huge potential for greatness here...LOVE the 88% whole cluster funk, dancing around with some pretty tasty floral and herb spices...but just needs to come together. Will save some for tomorrow and report back...but for now HOLD these for a few years. ++pts 78% Grenache, 19% Syrah and 3% Mourvèdre
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3/7/2017 - thelostverse wrote: 94 Points
Opened by VM at Adelle's with some of the CWM. This had been decanted about 12 hours prior to dinner, but it could certainly use more time in decanter or cellar. Red and black fruits on the nose and palate, with something on the finish that was somehow sweet. Very nice.
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3/7/2017 - Vino Me wrote: 95 Points
Decanted 12 hours before dinner. 78% Grenache, 19% Syrah and 3% Mourvedre. 88% whole cluster. 15.7% alcohol. Crimson color. Grapes nose. Notes of elderberry, charcoal, dark chocolate and licorice. The alcohol was not prevalent. Moderate tannins for being so young. Long finish and full mouth feel. Definitely more feminine that the SQN Male that I had last month and more approachable at this point. 95 points..
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2/15/2017 - globalflyer wrote: 95 Points
A great wine in the making. Needs at least 5 years to hit the right stride. Deep color and good alcohol level. Sharp but not abnormal for its age. Mellow with decanting and tells of the future to come. Barnyard funk, rosemary and dried grass aromas. Definitely central CA Syrah influenced. Good wine tonight but will be better with some sleep.
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2/6/2017 - edwardochu wrote: 90 Points
beautiful nose, but quite frankly that's all its got atm. I am not experienced enough to judge its potential, but for the moment there is simply not enough body nor weight. Decanted and drank from hour 2-4
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2/5/2017 - Nanda wrote: 92 Points
For the SQN lover, what's not to like here? Huge lifted aromatics that are very typical with sexy red and black fruits and exotic spice accents. The palate is rich yet weightless. A bit un-evolved and even a bit boring at this stage. But tons of stuffing.
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2/5/2017 - Burgundy Al wrote:
Good Wine with an Exciting Super Bowl (Chez Kailin - Northbrook IL): Still extremely ripe and dense, seeming too ultra ripe for now. At the same time there is great concentration that gives me confidence this will become very enjoyable with a few more years in the cellar.
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1/29/2017 - redpine42 Likes this wine: 96 Points
Loved this wine. First Grenache I've tried. And the first bottle I drank since joining the mailing list.
The legs are medium. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like stoniness and black pepper. The body is full. The wine has silky texture. The wine finishes long. The wine has low acidity.
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1/28/2017 - ryonlife wrote: 90 Points
Deep and dark. Both the notes coming out of the glass and on the pallete were black cherry, blackberry liqueur. This wine has a tremendous mouthfeel and balance: It's jammy, the tannins are just starting to soften, good acidity and has a nice long finish that left me kind of smacking my lips and reaching right away for another sip. I'd like to sock a few more bottles of this away and think it'll be pretty special not too far off.
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1/28/2017 - joshabramson Likes this wine: 94 Points
Quite good, but I was hoping for more. I enjoyed my recent bottle of Dark Blossom much more. This is very grape-y and very expensive!
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1/21/2017 - cadamson Likes this wine: 93 Points
Quite dark violet purple. Pretty big, though somewhat monolithic nose of dark red fruit and vanilla. Decanted for a few hours. Drank very smoothly, excellent mouthfeel (full bodied yet somehow elegant). Tastes excellent (bright red/blue fruit, spice, vanilla), though pretty muted, clearly needing some more time in bottle to blossom. Should be pretty special in a few years.
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10/27/2016 - AllRed wrote: 94 Points
I double decanted this prior to leaving for the restaurant, where it was served with our entrees roughly four hours after the cork was pulled. Brief notes. Violet, lavender and raspberry aromas; there's an elegance here. Cherry, currant and raspberry along with vanilla and spice accents and a long finish. Dense and concentrated but also elegant and light. Excellent.
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10/6/2016 - tomoem Likes this wine: 96 Points
Tasted at the WINEBID.COM 20th anniversary NYC tasting.
One of the bigger wines of the night. Really up-front sweet fruits. Fully ripened prunes, silky sweet liquors on the palette. Modest and faint tannin's were present but were simply overwhelmed by the size of this thing. Shockingly outrageous wine ......I loved it
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8/9/2016 - Jeff Leve wrote: 97 Points
The obvious deep, dark color lets you know this is a powerful, concentrated wine loaded with layers of sweet, dark red fruits, spice, licorice, black cherry liqueur, jam and vanilla. Rich, fat, polished, sweet juicy fruits line your palate in the lengthy finish. The wine was made from a blend that would be right at home in Chateauneuf du Pape using 78% Grenache, 19% Syrah and 3% Mourvedre.
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7/5/2016 - Rosengoo wrote: 95 Points
This bottle was drank at home without decanting. It was almost perfectly clear and garnet red in colour and had a bouquet of mostly cherries with a hint of apples and a noticeable yeast smell on immediate opening. The major taste on this was of red cherries alongside of some chocolate. The tannins were surprisingly strong and the acidity was low and this actually created a nice balance for this bottle. I found this to be the earliest approachable SQN wine that I have had and I'm looking forward to seeing how these age.
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6/28/2016 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Drank side by side with the Syrah at a steak dinner. This was excellent - more toned down than the Syrah and a lot lighter on the palette. Too young to be drinking right now and even with a decant it was a bit more primary than I really expect for an SQN. Lovely balance though between the fruit and leather and tobacco and more savory flavors. If drunk by themselves i think I would have preferred this, but the Syrah just complemented the steak so well.
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6/24/2016 - pakabear Likes this wine: 96 Points
Sweet dark fruit on the nose, raspberry liquor, palate is silky with a finish of fairly moderate tannins, very young and needs a min of 3 years. Very good as usual with this producer, I'd be interested in trying this again in a few years. It doesn't seem to match up to some of the epic Grenache's they've had in the past as I don't get all the secondary characteristics I normally would but this is great stuff!
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4/2/2016 - B Paul wrote:
Decanted and consumed over three hours. Great nose, and I think it will be really good, but this needs some time to settle down. Recommend holding for a couple of years.
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3/28/2016 - shadow wrote: 99 Points
Fruit and a touch of deep wood moss, than wild game, than that long slow fade
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