Our Provenance Guarantee
Purchase with confidence. All of our wines are selectively sourced and thoroughly inspected for authenticity and signs of poor storage. Accepted bottles are preserved in our climate-controlled cellar until they reach your doorstep. We have no storefront and no walk-in traffic, so nothing is moved or handled between inspection and shipping.
The bottle you see photographed is the bottle you receive (or fundamentally identical when multiple bottles are listed), and our commitment to you is that it arrives as represented. If it doesn’t, we want to hear from you.
Special Note:
Interested in splitting up the case and buying just 1 or 2 bottles? Contact us and we may oblige.
Ratings & Tasting Notes:
2016 Subir Syrah, Eleven Confessions Vineyard: (3) bottles
100 points — Jeb Dunnuck
Deep purple, with crème de cassis, white chocolate, blackberry, unsmoked tobacco and peppery spice. Full-bodied, layered and seamless, balancing power and elegance. It will benefit from 2 to 4 years in bottle but is already enjoyable.
99 points — Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
Very deep purple-black, with baked blackberry, plum preserve, blueberry pie, tilled earth, lilac, tobacco leaf, wild sage, truffle and espresso. Tightly structured, with firm, rounded tannins, great freshness and a long, mineral finish.
98 points — Vinous
Thick tannins wrap a core of inky dark fruit, with spice, lavender, mint and dried herbs emerging with air; “the rare Sine Qua Non wine that demands cellaring.”
2016 Pajarito del Amor Grenache, Eleven Confessions Vineyard: (3) bottles
100 points — Jeb Dunnuck
Deep purple, with cassis, blackberry, toasted spice, caramelized meat, white pepper and graphite. Full-bodied and layered, with ripe tannins, great purity and a powerful finish; among California’s greatest Grenache-based wines.
100 points — Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
Candied violets, mandarin peel and Indian spice lead to redcurrant, Morello cherry, raspberry and earthy notes. Fresh, harmonious and soft in tannin, with a savory, floral finish. “Yowza, that’s good.”
98 points — Vinous
Exotic and beguiling, with inky purple fruit, espresso, mocha and rose petal, and the promise of more to come with bottle age.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Sine Qua Non, founded in 1994 by Manfred and Elaine Krankl, is California’s most celebrated cult producer of Rhône-variety wines, and every cuvée receives a new name and Manfred’s original artwork each year. Eleven Confessions is the Krankls’ own estate vineyard in the cool Sta. Rita Hills, and its Syrah and Grenache rank among the most coveted bottles in American wine, offered almost exclusively to the winery’s long-standing mailing list.
This original six-bottle case holds (3) bottles of the 2016 Subir Syrah and (3) bottles of the 2016 Pajarito del Amor Grenache, both from the Eleven Confessions Vineyard. Subir is nearly 90% Syrah, aged 38 months in mostly new French oak; Pajarito del Amor is about 85% Grenache, fermented with 56% whole clusters. Jeb Dunnuck awarded both wines a perfect 100 points, and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate gave 100 points to the Grenache and 99 to the Syrah, confirming 2016 as a landmark vintage for Sine Qua Non.
Bottle Size:
OWC case including (6) bottles: (3) 2016 Subir Syrah and (3) 2016 Pajarito del Amor Grenache. Each bottle is 750 mL.
Storage History:
Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Outstanding condition, as shown.
