Aging SQN?

[larry_schaffer]

@Manfred Krankl

Thank you very much Don and Mark and Gerhard. I grately appreciate your comments.
It probably won’t satisfy Larry’s overwhelming “curiosity”, but I appreciate your comments and thoughts.
Manfred

Manfred,

As I sit at Agave Maria not far from your home, I just want to let you know how much I certainly appreciate you taking part in these discussions. My curiosity for all things wine continues to be unsatiated, as does yours, I hope.

You are probably the best judge of how your wines age. And I’m curious as to your thoughts on this subject matter. And do you ever compare your wines to others in terms of age-ability and wonder why they do or don’t age as you might expect?

I am not a dogmatic person I don’t think you are either, and I truly and honestly are interested in your opinion about all things wine. You may not believe this, but I do appreciate and respect you and what you’ve accomplished.

Cheers.

[Kris_Patten]

@Manfred Krankl

Thank you very much Don and Mark and Gerhard. I grately appreciate your comments.
It probably won’t satisfy Larry’s overwhelming “curiosity”, but I appreciate your comments and thoughts.
Manfred

MK,

I’d actually appreciate if you made the reds less delicious young so I’d keep my hands off them and actually have 5 or 6 bottles left at age 10+.

To the rest, the wines I have actually let sit the longest are the whites, rose’s, and Estate wines. I still have 1 2005 O&O Pinot left too, that hasn’t hit peak yet for me. I only own wines from 2003 forward now, but I’ve never had a wine that in my mind had peaked and needed to be consumed near term.

If you’re in Seattle Larry, pretty sure we can get a good mix of wines out and hit Wild Ginger or some other apropos spot.

[Kris_Patten]

@Yao C

Thank you all for the feedback; I’m not going to be afraid of letting my bottles sit for a little longer

One follow-up question - apparently Manfred recommends a 5h decant but have you all had good results with that? Especially with older bottles?

I find best treatment is open early in morning, pour a taste to assure it’s sound, and leave uncorked on counter til 6 or 7pm for dinner.

I find they shut down when decanted and lose aromatics.

[larry_schaffer]

Kris,

Would love to take you up on that offer one of these days.

Cheers.

[crickey]

One more data point: I opened a 2005 Atlantis fe-203-1a last night, and it was vibrant and alive (and very, very good).

[PhilippeCamps]

The 2005 Atlantis Grenache tasted at 9 years of age is the wine that converted me to SQN…

2005 Sine Qua Non Grenache Atlantis Fe2O3~2a, b & c - USA, California (25-07-14)
Beautiful and powerful loads of iodine, vanilla, super concentrated ripe fruit... very sappy high acidity with loads of red and black cherries, lot of tension and minerality makes this wine extra special... I'm converted to SQN!! (99 points)

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

@larry schaffer

Kris,

Would love to take you up on that offer one of these days.

Cheers.

If you come to the right coast (right as in correct ) one of these days, let me know and I can open some for you. The big advantage to trying to let them age is that inventory increases faster than out-ventory.

[David_Glasser]

@Dan.Gord0n

@Mark Christenson

I recently had the 2002 JUST FOR THE LOVE OF IT, and the 2004 INTO THE DARK and both were singing. A few years ago I had the E RAISED and it, too, was singing. I’ve yet to have a SQN red that is over the hill, and I’ve been thoroughly impressed with them both young and up to 15-years old. At this point I’m thinking that these are 20+ year wines, and it will be interesting to see even beyond that.

Mark, I definitely agree. Based on my experience (almost 20yrs) with the SQN wines, I think that they can age very well and most often do much better after at least 4-5 years from release and often much closer to 8-10yrs after release. It will certainly be fun to age them and see how many keep improving and drinking well past age 20+. Also, in my opinion, even though the early bottlings were excellent, the quality improvement moving from the 90s bottlings and early 00 bottlings into the mid-00 and more recent ones has been stunning. As a result, I’d guess that many of the recent great bottlings will age even better than the early vintages.

On reflection, I cannot remember a single instance where an experience with one of the bottlings when it was young was better than later experiences after cellaring for at least 5-7 years. I used to open one bottle pretty soon after arrival (mostly out of curiosity) but stopped doing that since waiting always provided a noticeable benefit.

Same experience here. I’m no longer buying SQN as I was accumulating it faster than I drank it. So I have a fair amount cellared and find I like them both young and old. Drank my last Queen of Spades (1994) in 2014 at 20 years of age and it was outstanding. I think most of them drink better 3-5 years or more after release. The whites as well. They don’t turn into aged Bordeaux or Rhone, but they do become more integrated and gain a bit of complexity.

[jeffruggels]

Agree with Mark, Dan and David. Had a 98 eraised at end of 17 and it was brilliant, with plenty of steam left. I dont think 05 EBAs have hit peak yet (or are just there) and have decade(s) ahead

[Andrew_Dodd]

@Arnold Caplan

I’m on a 6-8 year hold…they start to sing at that point…I’ve had 10 year olds and they also are fine…

Ditto, similar thoughts