Steinberger (and Levenberg) Give SQN Its (Long Over-) Due!

http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2015/04/taking-sides-over-sine-qua-non

As i have said before, everyone has their own palate / experience / preferences. I agree that will never change. But i personally believe you can enjoy and appreciate a broad spectrum of wines. wine is not a series of binary choices in my mind. More room at my table than others i suppose

Levenberg’s original article in Noble Rot was really something to behold.

The link really needs to be posted on the Squires board and the Vinous board by those with access. Parker is a huge Mike Steinberger fan, and he deserves the opportunity to weigh in on this article… :slight_smile:

Adrian, how does one access Keith’s article?

I’m not sure if there’s a digital copy floating around anywhere. A cursory search on the Google has turned up nothing.

The article was originally printed in the 5th issue of Noble Rot.

I think that I tend to fall in the range that accepts the broad spectrum when it comes to wine. I tend to view part of my collection & drinking experiences. Do I love them…and are they an enjoyable part of my drinking experience…absolutely. Wines like Cayuse, No Girls, and Horsepower are near that Sine Qua Non end of the spectrum as I see it. I don’t want them often…and I don’t see myself drinking them more than a few times/year. However, I like having them available when I’m craving something different from the norm of where my palate leads.

As I type more about this I wonder if the argument isn’t so much about if SQN is a great wine…but maybe the question should be, “Are great wines polarizing?” When I think about the wines that I truly love (Musar, Bartlett Estate, Métras, & Ponsot come to mind) they often find people with strong opinions about them and if they command such passion…aren’t they doing what wine is supposed to do?

Kirk, I agree that one can appreciate a variety of styles, but it seems to me that the point here is not to add another chapter to the Style Wars, but to single out the SQN phenomenon. There are a fair number of SQN fetishists around who evidence no appreciation or understanding of fine wine. They are the worst sort of status-symbol, numbers and labels drinkers, and a reflection of Parker’s influence at its most quotesque. I see SQN as the Beany Babys of those with significant disposable income (witness those trying to scoop up as many books/Petite Sirahs as possible to flip later, and watch the same people periodically posting to pimp the SQN auction market and protect their investments), and an exclusive club to confer bragging rights upon others. Look at the amount of space that has been devoted on WB to boasting about allocation size and to letting all know that folks are “on the list” or have “finally made the list”, not to mention the sad, whiny lamentations of those who are stuck in the 7th level of SQN wait-list hell. Little of this behavior has anything to do with the wine, whose style is extreme and possessed of few, if any, characteristics of the world’s finest wines…

I will not climb down the ladder to THIS low level - sorry!

I am not a fan of SQN, but they do hold the mantle of most grotesque wines. That title belongs to Saxum.

It was a fun read, Bill. I sent my copy to John Morris, perhaps you can beg him to send it to you when done.

I wish Keith still actively kept his blog. He is an incredible writer and commentator.

I like reading Levenberg, and like drinking SQN. Being Jewish, however, I am culturally challenged by the secondary market pricing when I think about uncorking a bottle.

Mr. Berserker what do I do?

I traded Keith a bottle of 17th Nail In My Cranium and a half-bottle of Suey for a copy of the article…

Sell and drink OPSQN…

i’m dying to read this…can someone please, pretty please send me a pdf of the article?

ybarselah@gmail.com

thanks.

Jewish? I thought you were a Cowboy.

He’s Billy Crystal

The real question is can Glenn sing?

It’s a single data point but the only SQN I ever tasted, Midnight Oil, I would have renamed Used Crankcase Oil.

In terms of the fetish-nature of the collecting, you could say the same thing about DRC and First Growth Bordeaux. While I certainly wouldn’t call their style extreme, the people who collect them often times have the same relationship to them as what you are describing.

Not a note.