Sine Qua Non (wine)
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Sine Qua Non (commonly abbreviated as SQN) is a
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...
that is known for its limited-production and expensive wines made from blends of
Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...
grape varieties. Each release is allocated and directly sold to a mailing list of customers. As of 2018, the wait to join the mailing list was about 9 years. The winery is located in
Ventura County Ventura County () is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises ...
and was founded in 1993 by Austrian Manfred Krankl, who emigrated to the US in 1980. The name of the
winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...
,
Sine Qua Non A ''sine qua non'' (, ) or ''condicio sine qua non'' (plural: ''condiciones sine quibus non'') is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for " conditionwithout which it could not b ...
, is a Latin phrase 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. The bottles are unusually shaped with distinctive labels featuring Manfred Krankl's own artwork.


History

Founded in 1994 by Manfred Krankl 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 to ...
, 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 Alba ...
and other vintners, initial production was approximately 100 cases. After several experiments with white varieties, Rhone red varieties 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 La Brea Bakery is an industrial baking company started in Los Angeles, California. Since opening its flagship store on 624 S La Brea Avenue in 1989—six months earlier than Campanile, the restaurant it was built to serve—La Brea has opened two ...
. 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) varieties 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 bottle style. Each label is designed by Manfred, often with
linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of relief printing in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief printing, relief surface. A design i ...
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, 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 ...
s were among the first
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
Syrahs to create significant interest and trading volume in the global wine
auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...
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 ''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine, wine culture and wine ratings. It is the flagship publication of M. Shanken Communications, which also publishes ''Cigar Aficionado'', ''Whisky Advocate'', ''Market Watch' ...
'' 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 an undistinguished 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 ''Mad Max'' is an Australian media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It centres on a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films. The franchise began in 1979 with '' Mad Max'', and was followed by three sequels: ...
'' 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. They currently 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 region near Buellton, 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 ...
, 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 mea ...
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 death 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 ...
,
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 condi ...
and Mourvedre. The white wines are typically made from
Roussanne Roussanne () is a white wine grape grown originally in the Rhône wine region in French wine, France, where it is often blended with Marsanne. It is the only other white variety, besides Marsanne, allowed in the northern Rhône appellation d'Orig ...
,
Viognier Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu AOC, Condrieu in the Rhone Valley (wine), Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''The Oxford Companion to Wine'', Third Edition, p. 754, Oxford Univers ...
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 a ...
. Sine Qua Non also produced a
Pinot noir Pinot noir (), also known as Pinot nero, is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name also refers to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words fo ...
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 wine color, 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 Macerati ...
made predominantly from the Grenache variety. 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. It is a quantity the Krankls call the maximum possible given their non-scalable, personal, hands-on tending of the entire winemaking process. This production includes literally each vine and
cluster of grapes In viticulture, the grape cluster (also bunch of grapes) is a fertilized inflorescence of the grapevine, the primary part of this plant used for food (grape leaves are also used in some culinary traditions). The size of the grape bunch greatly va ...
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 which is planted around their estate in Oakview. Beginning with the 2014 vintage, they also started 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 started collaborating with Clos Saint-Jean’s Maurel brothers, Vincent and Pascal, and oenologist
Philippe Cambie Philippe is a masculine given name, cognate to Philip, and sometimes also a surname. The name may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince ...
to produce a wine named Chimère in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
'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 promoti ...


References

{{Authority control Wineries in California