I really appreciate if a winemaker is doing their due diligence to hunt down the pure flippers. I’m not sure how many really care, but I hope they do. It’s fine to buy once and sell after tasting and not liking. I’m not really supportive of folks doing it as a for-profit business plan. That’s kind of gross. If your tastes change after 15 years, that’s also different. But look, there’s clearly folks all over this forum who feel wine is a commodity to be bought and sold, rather than bought and cherished….and only sold if push comes to shove. Every bottle of wine I’ve ever bought I intend to drink. Now…if a winemaker will only sell 3, 4, 6 packs of something…and every year I only want 2 or 3…I’m totally OK with those spare individuals ending up on the secondary market. In fact, I think that does newbies a possible solid to be able to try something highly allocated.
Now I know why they pruned me from their list.
The number of winemakers who have that kind of time available for such a task has to be infinitesimally small. One could argue that they should not be making wine but rather giving TED talks on time management.
The number of domestic wines that you can flip for a profit is also small, and does not include this release of SQN.
I get the disdain for people who sit on lists solely to flip, but there are a lot of us in a different camp. When I first made the SQN list there was simply no way I could afford these wines. Selling part of my allocation for a profit allowed me to keep part of my allocation for free, or for relatively low cost, and resulted in me being a huge fan of these wines and eventually keeping my allocations for myself once I could afford to do so.
What you just described seems perfectly reasonable to me and very different than someone buying a wine they don’t even like just to resell at a profit.
Thanks to everyone for the conversation and viewpoints. Ultimately, I decided to pass. At this price point, there are just too many other wines in the world to explore. Cheers!
Thanks all, Informative thread. I signed up Feb 2016 and just got an offer after “a handful of wines were unspoken for”. Up to 2 6 packs of red and 2 6 packs of whites. They auto-filled my cart with a max allocation - how generous!
I had signed up as a younger wine drinker wanting to get on a list like this for the future, and even after 10 years (!) on the list, at the current price I don’t think I’m going to take it given tasting preferences now and a 6 bottle requirement seems steep.
This seems like a silly pursuit, a waste of time and resources for any winery.
That is one heck of a first allotment - to those on the list, how common is that?
Cheers
Although I’m a QPR nerd and not part of Sine Qua Non’s target audience, I have to admit that tasting their products (which I’ve not yet done) is a bucket list item for me. My perception is that SQN is a sort of California analogue to Ch Valandraud? Or is Tertre Roteboeuf more the vibe? (I understand we’re talking different grapes here.)
I never was big on Rhone varietals until I tasted SQN. Figured I would drink big Cabs forever.
No idea how to even put a finger on what he does but it’s just one of those experiences that must be had by any wine aficionado. Hard to compare to really anything else.
Just for the record I officially passed on my allocation. Hopefully one of you gets it soon.
What used to sell out in hours now doesn’t… it’s been open for about 2 weeks. I wonder if they stock more inventory or sell to more wholesale accounts when this happens. The “Offer Closing” email says this past Tuesday was the final day to purchase, and here we are on Friday the 29th and it’s still open…
I’m not on the list any longer, but was for 20 years. The offer is not normal, not even close.
Exact same experience here. I also signed up in Feb 2016 and recieved an offer last night. After 10 years of rather heart-felt “sorry, we wish there were more wine to go around” emails, my tastes and collecting desires have changed and I will not take the $5k (2 boxes and 6 whites) offer..
For a while I was sharing a friend’s allocation and would get 1 syrah and 1 grenache from him annually. I stopped doing that a few years ago, but often see SQN listed below the prices I paid. At this point, it’s easy to get a bottle at list cost, and without all the packaging/shipping/etc, so saying no to the allocation is very easy. I think if I’d made the list 3-4 years ago I’d have thought about taking 1 box, but not any longer
Maybe SQN can make a “Newbie” offer at next year’s Berserker Day!
I got on the list a few a releases ago after waiting 10+ years. Turns out I love the Syrahs but can’t stand New-World Grenache, but you have to take one with the other, so I started passing. They are still sending me allocations. Good luck.
Looks like they finally hit the wall with the price increase. Its tough out there.
Sine qua non…until it’s not.