Sanguis Wines

I know that Matthias Pippig worked for Manfred at SQN but I was not aware that he had opened his own winery. I am attending a tasting on June 14 and was wondering if anyone had any experiences with his wines. Apparently we will be tasting Loner Chard '08; Poastcard of Morocco '10; and The ballad of John Henry '09.

Anyone tasted any of these wines, if so how do they compare, if at all, to SQN?

Silly names.

Surprised I don’t hear this name much on the board. Seemed like a lot of fanfare prior to their inaugural release. I grabbed a couple from the wine cask futures thing.

Here is my only note https://wineimport.discoursehosting.net/t/tn-2006-sanguis-novillero/2560/1

I am sure someone else can provide more helpful info.

Jason

Krankl and Pippig?

I’ve had 4-5 different bottles from these guys and while good, they’re nowhere near the quality of SQN. Less complexity, less balance, less concentration, less lift and higher more noticeable oak presence.

I thought Maggie Harrison of Lillian was Manfred Krankels long time assistant. No?

Correct. Matthias worked for Manfred at the bakery, not the winery.

Got the fall release offer today. Anyone else get it?
It’s a frustrating read. Whats so difficult about writing release notes that actually talk about the wine? I don’t care about turducken or other culinary adventures when buying wine that is $60 a bottle. It read like a Scholium Project offer.

I got an offer today and it is my first. The couple of bottles that I have had I enjoyed. Has anyone tried any of these yet? They all sound good especially the 1/1 but I’m hesitant to buy them blind since I have seen them before in retail stores. Thanks for any info you may have.

Chris

2011 Incandescent
A good music choice for this wine on a sensational summer late-afternoon: Paolo Conte’s ‘Alle Prese Con Una Verde Milonga’ from the Night Owls album (chances are you won’t understand a word, but it’s Italian and so makes up for it with hands, feet, a wink and maybe even a bit of a smirk…
The first of our 2011’s to be released and a great representative of the vintage as a whole: here the spotlight is squarely on balance, elegance, and a certain youthful innocence rather than the power of both its predecessors ('09 and '10). Having said that, this blend, which tips the scales heavily on the side of Roussanne is, as most of our whites, not a wine for the faint of heart. Roussanne in the Santa Ynez Valley tends to be on the voluptuous side of the spectrum, and I’ve started using a percentage of stainless steel barrels for the upbringing of these wines in order to preserve and accentuate the pretty youthfulness.
Composition: Roussanne (cold soaked and fermented on the skins), Chardonnay, and Viognier, raised for 15 months in new 300L and used 228L French oak, and stainless steel barrels. Less than 300 cases bottled - as always, unfined and unfiltered.

2010 Verve
Music: Ahmad Jamal’s Poinciana - The live version on ‘One Night Only’ (!)
This is what the dictionary says this about ‘Verve’: noun: enthusiasm, energy, spirit, life, force, punch (informal), dash, pep, sparkle, zip (not code), vitality, animation, vigor, zeal, gusto, welly (slang), get-up-and-go (informal), elan, brio, vivacity, liveliness, vim (whatever that is).

My growing love affair with Grenache had been hampered by the fact that great Grenache vineyards in Santa Barbara County have been scarce - so we planted a few acres in two of my favorite vineyards, right on the edge of where Grenache can barely thrive - right where we like it. These new plantings rewarded 3 years of diligent coddling with the most beautiful inaugural raw material, and the end-result is the first Sanguis wine to be labeled as Grenache.

We picked the grapes for this wine the day after Thanksgiving 2010. Here’s that scene: 5AM, it’s pitch black out, twelve guys with a bit of that Thanksgiving hangover are standing on a lonely hillside with spelunker headlights on their heads and shears in hand, it’s 27F out (you can choose what that ‘F’ stood for right then), the Santa Rita Hills wind is blowing. We were ready …sort of (one of the aforementioned character, beauty & balance building exercises).
Composition: Grenache, co-fermented with small amounts of Syrah and Viognier with about 21% whole cluster inclusion, raised for 23 months in a combination of new and 'certified self-pre-used’TM 500, 300 and 228L French oak barrels. (Sadly) only 150 cases bottled. Unfined and unfiltered.

2010 Couture
Lester Bowie, The Great Pretender (from 'The Great Pretender album on ECM)
The late Alexander McQueen said: “There is no better designer than nature.”

A fine suit or dress, a well made pair of boots - these are the things that fit like a glove; things we may not really need but we want because somebody took great care in making them, imparting their sense of style, beauty and humor, and composing material, color, cut and craftsmanship into a thing both practical and desirable, that is ultimately greater than the sum of its parts.

That best of all designers, nature, made this wine; my job was merely to assemble the individual parts the way they seemed to want to go together.
Composition: Syrah, Grenache (with 12% whole cluster inclusion), Cabernet Sauvignon, Viognier; raised for 24 months in combination new and not so new 228 and 300L French oak barrels. Approximately 250 cases bottled. Unfined and unfiltered.

2010 1/1
Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-Flat, Op. 22: II. Adagio Con Molto Espressione!
OK, long story and I’ll cut to the chase: when I got to sit behind the wheel of my dad’s white Mercedes 200 (standard equipment for German middle management in the 1970’s - a style-less embarrassment! But solid), what always puzzled me was the fuel gauge: 0 - ½ - 1/1. What the hell does 1/1 mean? Said father explained that it means a full tank, but that it represents more than that: a full measure, one of one (and thus in my mind) ‘one of a kind’, unique.

This wine is a rare case of singularity in Sanguis wine production - single varietal, single vineyard (John Sebastiano), (and lamentably) a bloody single barrel of this elixir is all there is - because it was such a complete thing in and of itself. Like the place where it is from, 1/1 the wine, is of a savage character who in spite of his wild soul does such a fine job balancing savory and sweet notes, firm structure with silky texture, youth and maturity. Very close to my ideal, this is a wine that jumps out of the glass and intrigues right away, but continues to build once in the glass and exposed to a good bit of air.
Composition: Syrah co-fermented with 4% Viognier and 25% whole cluster inclusion, raised for 19 months in new 500L French Oak barrel.
(Please note that because there is scarcely any of this stuff, we are offering only 100 wooden boxes - each containing two 750 ml bottles and a magnum - on a first-come-first-served basis.)

How is it that a Syrah co-fermented with 4% Viognier is a “single varietal” bottling?

If you go by the TTB labeling rules, it’s kosher, but I hear ya.

Newsletters/descriptions like that make buying decisions very very easy for me.

I had a bottle of their 2006 Infidel (Syrah, Cabernet, Grenache blend) late last year and I was wildly impressed with it for the price I paid ($36 - Brown Derby). It’s definately “new world” in style…but it doesn’t have the same balance, depth, and lift that SQN has…from my limited experience with both. Below is my note…I’d not be paying $60/bottle for the wine. Yet, I’m not a big fan of that style.

Color: Garnet
Smell: Violets, manure, earth, dark fruits, and blueberries
Taste: Dark fruits, violets, blueberries, hints of dark chocolate and char
Overall: Complex and wildly unique for California. While a “bruiser” of a wine…this still presents a balance that is lovely and worth attention. Medium-full body, med+ fruit, med+ acidity, medium + complexity, and a balance that is both deft and bold in is structure…Outstanding!! This should hold well for another 2-3 years.

Stick with Maggie’s wines if you are able to get on the list.

In all my experiences with thwese wines I have found them to be overpriced, and overripe. Perhaps trying too hard to be SQN, when it’s really not even in the cards? Fans will say “NO!”, but I have trouble believing them.

I remember when he consulted for Grassini, taking over after Sashi Moorman. After Sashi barreled down the '06 Cabernet, sources claim Mattias wanted to pour this wine down the drain when he arrived. His ego wanted no part of this wine. He had it moved off site, forgotten and left to die. Few barrels survived the neglect and I had the pleasure of trying wine from one. It was a great wine, one of the best Cabs from Santa Ynez I could recall. Sadly the wine was eventually declassified, blended down and sold off through Alta Maria bearing no resemblance to the beautiful wine I had once tasted. I cannot think about the Sanguis wines without thinking of this.

It’s been a few vintages since I have given attention to these wines, and perhaps things have changed. I would be lying if I said there wasn’t some level of pretentiousness with this brand that bothers me too. I have an open ear around the wine community here on the Central Coast sensitive to talk about the local juice. With all sources for such talk considered, I have not been compelled to give the wines another sniff.