($95) Red-ruby. Very fresh aromas of dark cherry and nutty oak. A sweet, vibrant fruit bomb of a grenache with superb clarity of dark berry flavors and brilliant framing acidity. With aeration, this builds impressively on the back end, with the fruit flavors turning redder and more classically grenache. Impressively ripe and long, with tannins buried in fruit.

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio

2003 Little E: Named after Manfred Krankl's wife, Elaine, this blend of 78% Grenache, 12% Mourvedre and 10% Syrah was one of the first cuvees from the estate's 11 Confessions Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills. The rest of the fruit came from the Alban, Alta Mesa and Bien Nacido sites. Aged primarily in 300-liter hogsheads, this wine performed brilliantly in the tastings, starting a succession of prodigious Grenaches to emerge from Sine Qua Non. Fabulous fruit intensity, with loads of black cherry, black currant, licorice, incense, and some smoke are followed by a wine with good acidity, velvety yet moderate tannins, and a wonderfully layered, multi-dimensional mouthfeel. This wine is drinking great already, but is still a young wine, from an evolutionary standpoint a mere adolescent, and has at least another decade of sumptuous consumption ahead of it.

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio

Alright, Josh Leader is responsible for breaking my SQN cherry and I am eternally grateful! I know this type of tasting isn'texactly Josh?s thing, but I was very glad he came and hope he had as much fun as I did. Anyhow, this is a texturally superlative wine, just about as plush, seamless and polished as any Grenache I've ever tasted, w/ a sensual beam of pure vanilla extract, raspberry and macerated cherries effortlessly gliding along to an effortless finish. Manfred handles his wines in a distinct fashion from the norm and there is no doubting his success, but I have to say that tasting the ?05 McPrice Myers whispers in my ear that he?s going to have some company at the top of the Rhone pedestal (besides John Alban, of course). This expression of SQN is drinking as well as you could hope for; but if you give the McPrice a couple more years and find that it hits this type of textural stride (while holding its alcohol), then we?ll have quite the interesting story to tell,