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Sine Qua Non (commonly abbreviated as SQN) is a
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
winery that is known for its wines made from blends of Rhône grape varietals, a tendency to avoid repetition, and very limited production of wines that are difficult to obtain. Each release is allocated and directly sold to a carefully managed mailing list of customers. As of 2018, the wait to join the mailing list was approximately 9 years. The winery is located in Ventura County and was founded in 1993 by Austrian Manfred Krankl, who emigrated to the US in 1980. The name of the winery, Sine Qua Non, is a Latin phrase that can be translated as "absolutely indispensable". The wines themselves are given frequently changing names such as Queen of Spades, Twisted & Bent, Imposter McCoy, The Bride, Poker Face, and Red Handed, and the bottles are unusually shaped with distinctive labels featuring Manfred Krankl's own artwork.


History

Founded in 1994 by
Manfred Krankl Manfred Krankl is a winemaker and founder of Sine Qua Non (wine), a California winery that is known for its wines made from blends of Rhône grape varietals, a tendency to avoid repetition, and very limited production of wines that are difficult to ...
and his wife Elaine. The Krankls began making their own wines in 1994 due to personal interest and with the added benefit of being able, if the wines were good enough, to sell them to the successful Mediterranean-themed Los Angeles restaurant
Campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
, which Manfred co-founded and managed. Beginning with several self described "project wines" made in partnership with
John Alban Alban Vineyards is a California wine estate producing various Rhône style blends and varietal wines. The winery is located in Edna Valley, near Arroyo Grande in the southern corner of San Luis Obispo County. History Starting in 1985, John Alban ...
and other vintners, initial production was approximately 100 cases. After several experiments with white varietals, Rhone red varietals and even Pinot noir, the Krankls found their sweet spot in 1994 with a predominantly Syrah-based blend they named Queen of Spades that earned a 95-point rating from Robert Parker. Today, this wine retails at an average price of $5,861 per bottle. Manfred was also a co-founder of La Brea Bakery. Sale of a portion of his ownership position in LaBrea enabled him to focus on wine-making full-time, at which point total production, diversity of releases, and competency with the full spectrum of Rhone (and other) varietals steadily increased. Sourcing fruit from a wide variety of growers from year to year, and increasingly from their own vineyards has caused the winery to never make exactly the same wine twice, about which Krankl has said, "People buy Sine Qua Non. They don’t seem to give a toot where it’s from". However, beginning with 2020, 100% of the grapes will come from SQN-owned vineyards. A tradition at Sine Qua Non has been that each wine has a distinct name, label and often bottle style. Each label is designed by Manfred, often with linocut art work of his own creation. However, in 2021 SQN announced that due to the difficulty of registering new names, which has sometimes required renaming a wine before release, in the future there will no longer be unique names for each bottling. Sine Qua Non's
Syrah Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse B ...
s were among the first American Syrahs to create significant interest and trading volume in the global wine auction market. From the second quarter of 1999 to early 2008, the value of SQN wines at auctions appreciated by 163% in contrast to the 128% appreciation rate during the same period of other collectible wines listed on the '' Wine Spectator'' Auction Index. In 2015, three half bottles of the 2002 Sine Qua Non E° (a rosé, which is not typically a wine type that attracts high prices at auction), sold for a total of $4,200. Sine Qua Non's first winery, located in a nondescript warehouse at the back of an industrial facility in North Ventura, has been described by Robert Parker as "a facility that looks like a '' Mad Max'' movie set". Over the years the Krankls have steadily purchased or leased their own terroir with the goal of obtaining total control over the growth and supply of their grapes. Currently they manage several vineyards including an approximately 10-planted-acre plot at their home facility in Oakview, California, just inland from Ventura, California, and another approximately 20-planted-acre plot in the
Santa Rita Hills The Sta. Rita Hills AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Santa Barbara County, California. From its creation in 2001 through 2006, the wine appellation was officially named Santa Rita Hills AVA. The formal name change was the result ...
region near
Buellton Buellton is a small city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It is located in the Santa Ynez Valley, west of Solvang. The population was 5,161 at the 2020 census, up from 4,828 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S ...
, California. In 2012 a major new winery facility was completed on the Krankl's Oak View, California, lands, and most vinification was relocated there from the initial Ventura winery location. In collaboration with Austrian winemaker
Alois Kracher Alois Kracher Jr. (23 February 1959 – 5 December 2007, in Illmitz) was one of the most successful winemakers of Austria, and was known under the nickname "Luis". The wines from his vineyard ''Weinlaubenhof Kracher'' reached a world reputation an ...
, Manfred and Elaine Krankl have also produced
sweet wine Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal ...
s under the label "Mr. K" (after the surnames of the two winemakers). Krankl announced that this program would end with the release of the 2006 vintage due to the untimely passing of Kracher. The red wines have typically included the grape varieties of
Syrah Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse B ...
,
Grenache Grenache () or Garnacha () is one of the most widely planted red wine grape varieties in the world.Niels Lillelund: ''Rhône-Vinene'' p. 25, JP Bøger – JP/Politikens Forlagshus A/S, 2004. . It ripens late, so it needs hot, dry conditi ...
and Mourvedre. The white wines are typically made from
Roussanne Roussanne is a white wine grape grown originally in the Rhône wine region in France, where it is often blended with Marsanne. It is the only other white variety, besides Marsanne, allowed in the northern Rhône appellations of Crozes-Hermita ...
,
Viognier Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu in the Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 754 Oxford University Press 2006 Outside of the Rh ...
and
Marsanne Marsanne is a white wine grape, most commonly found in the Northern Rhône region. It is often blended with Roussanne. In Savoie the grape is known as ''grosse roussette''. Outside France it is also grown in Switzerland (where it is known as ' ...
. Sine Qua Non also produced a
Pinot noir Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...
for several years, but discontinued that program after the 2005 vintage. In certain vintages, the winery has also released a
rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the skin contact metho ...
made predominantly from the Grenache varietal. In the late 2000s, Sine Qua Non began releasing Syrah and Grenache blends with extended barrel aging (EBA). These wines are held in barrel or cask for at least two and sometimes up to six years prior to bottling and release. The annual production of Sine Qua Non averages , or approximately 140 standard sixty gallon barrels, a quantity the Krankls call the maximum possible given their non-scalable, personal, hands-on tending of the entire winemaking process, including literally each vine and cluster of grapes in all vineyards from which they derive fruit. In 2007, Manfred and Elaine Krankl started a sister winery named Next of Kyn. These wines are sourced from their Cumulus Vineyard that is planted around their estate in Oakview. Beginning with the 2014 vintage, they also began releasing wines coming from their estate vineyard called The Third Twin, located in Los Alamos. The latter includes a wine made from the Spanish grape
Graciano Graciano is a Spanish red wine grape that is grown primarily in Rioja. The vine produces a low yield that are normally harvested in late October. The wine produced is characterized by its deep red color, strong aroma and ability to age ...
, which is the lowest production bottling they produce (855 bottles in 2017). Next of Kyn and The Third Twin offer wines via separate mailing lists than that of Sine Qua Non. Beginning in 2010, Manfred Krankl also began collaborating with
Clos Saint-Jean Clos may refer to: People * Clos (surname) Other uses * CLOS, Command line-of-sight, a method of guiding a missile to its intended target * Clos network, a kind of multistage switching network * Clos (vineyard), a walled vineyard; used in France, ...
’s Maurel brothers, Vincent and Pascal, and oenologist
Philippe Cambie Philippe is a masculine sometimes feminin given name, cognate to Philip. It may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince Philippe, Count ...
to produce a wine named Chimère in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
's Chateauneuf du Pape region. The Mourvedre that predominates in this blend comes from the famous la Crau lieu-dit.


See also

*
Rhone Rangers The Rhone Rangers are a group of American winemakers who promote the use of grape varieties from the Rhône Valley. They are mostly based on the West Coast, particularly California, and have created a not-for-profit organization for the promot ...


References

{{Authority control Wineries in California