I was wondering what the deal was with all the 2008 Sine Qua Non Kolibri on WineBid. 45 bottles and 15 lots from what I could count off hand. Just wondering if this seemed odd to others?
Likely that a substantial number of people bought it to flip and shipped it to winebid as soon as it arrived. Winebid likely overestimated the value or demand (or more likely underestimated the supply in the short term) and set the reserve price for the wine too high. No sales as a result.
I am not here to discredit SQN, but that wine is just plain terrible. I always thought of SQN as a label you could buy(usually in the black market for big $), but regardless you’d be happy with the product. I bought 6 btls of Kolribi thinking it would be the bomb, but not so the case. After sipping on the first bottle, I knew in 10 seconds that the rest were going up for sale. Very one dimensional, big alcohol, no complexity or balance. I also felt this way about the 07 Pictures & Labels wines(lacking dimension and tiers of flavors I’ve come to expect, drank more like a $25 syrah or grenache). I still have a bunch of 06 Raven grenache and 07 Body & Soul in my cellar, which both I love. I’ve been fortunate enough to taste just about every wine they have produced and as long as the bottle was showing, I was always impressed. Now, I’ll buy 1 btl and try it, if I like it, I’ll go back for more. I still think MK makes awesome wines, but I’m very selective now about what varietal/vintage I’ll buy
Did you just have the Kolibri once? The bottle I had was nothing like you describe, fruit forward with the typical tropical fruits, nice balance of acidity and less of the typical oily, waxy taste that some SQN whites have but all in all I did not think it was one dimensional or big on alcohol at all. Everyone of the 5 people who shared it enjoyed it immensely. I didnt take formal notes or score it but by if pushed to give it a rating I would go with 90-91, good but not great.