2007 Sine Qua Non- California Rosé Wine, Stripes & Stars
Let me begin by noting that I certainly realize and accept that there are plenty of fans of this winery. I will confess that I do tend to really like the label art. However, there is no denying the wines from Sine Qua Non are polarizing and count me in the group that finds them utterly undrinkable. A rosé that’s darker than a lot of reds I drink and weighs in at 15.8% alcohol (at least that’s what they confess to on the label?) Please. Rosé is supposed to be a refreshing and versatile wine to accompany food. This thing is best left to, well, I really don’t know what it’s best for. A weapon? Maybe fuel for a Mars rover? Perhaps best left alone as it’s an unstable and unbalanced, over-the-top mess. It shows slight spritz with a blowtorch of alcohol that manages to even overpower the confected and candied fruit. There’s a strange funky note to the wine that one can smell and taste over the alcohol and there’s an unpleasant and very strong bitter note. Just awful. It seems everything you can do to screw with a wine is done here. Worst wine of the year and a clear DNPIM (Do Not Put In Mouth) wine.
See, that is one huge problem I have with many Cali Roses. A lot of the smaller producers who make them just use their saignee juice to make rose, because they don’t want to dump it down the drain. So you are making rose with high sugar juice, which is diametrically opposed to the style of rose made in places like Tavel. You know, the place where people actually set out to make rose, and nothing else. If a California producer wanted to make a rose from the start, and they picked very early and made a low alcohol wine, it might be more of what I think a rose should be.
That is the main reason I hesitate to buy domestic rose.
I drank two bottles of the '04 Alban Sonrojo at 16.5%, shipped at the same time and stored under the same conditions. The first was enjoyable; the second, which I opened about six months later, was pink vodka. Truth be told, I attribute it to palate evolution. I opened the first very early on in my rosé explorations, and I think my palate was pretty fried from the 16% reds I was drinking at that point. During that six month period, my perception of “balance” evolved significantly.
Sorry for the hijack, Brad… but I guess if I had to hijack something, the Mars Rover would be pretty fun.
ESJ, baby! Bone Jolly is about as much pink fun as you can have in a glass w/o the neighbors calling the police. There are several Oregon producers who make balanced rosé too.
There certainly are exampleso of roses made in the ‘old world’ style in CA - try ‘Panky’ from Phillips-Fontes (hate the name of the wine, FWIW).
That said, it’s NOT impossible to make a nice, crisp, balanced, lower alcohol wine in a saignee style. My 08 is a saignee style made with 90% grenache and 10% mourvedre. I ‘bleed’ not to get two wines, but to ‘concentrate’ the remaining grenache and mourvedre lots . . . This rose is about 13.2% alcohol and dry as a bone . . .
Right after release I thought the Autrement Dit was excellent but turned somewhat simpler over time. The Stars and Stripes was crap right out of the gate. I’m surprised they sold it.