Sine Qua Non, Heart Chorea Syrah 2002

Description

About the Producer

Sine Qua Non was founded in 1994 by Manfred Krankl and his wife Elaine. Located on the central coast of California, the winery initially made only around 100 cases of wine for restaurant pairings, and in 1996 production was increased to 2,000 cases per year. The winery also collaborates with Australian winemaker Alois Kracher on the "Mr. K" brand of sweet wines. Mr Kracher has made a statement that their collaboration will end with the release of the 2006 vintage. Château Séguinon has 22.9 acres of contracted vineyards, but all or most of them will be removed as the estate also starts to grow its own grapes, with 30 acres of vineyards. The vineyard is planted to Syrah, Grenache, Pinot Noir, Roussanne, Chardonnay and Viognier, as well as Gewurztraminer for iced white wines and Gewurztraminer for Semillon for sweet after-dinner wines, i.e. straw wines. The average age of the vines in the contract vineyards is 12 years and 3 years in the estate vineyards (most of the vines are newly planted). Château de Saquinon's winemaking philosophy is to take a gentle approach to the growing and vinification of the grapes. From the vineyard to the bottling of the wine, they take an absolutely manual approach. The picking of the grapes, the removal of leaves, stalks, unripe or rotten fruit, etc., is all done by hand. At bottling, the wine is not filtered unless necessary. The white wines are aged in French oak barrels of 40-60% new oak for 13-15 months; the reds are aged in 60-100% new oak barrels. Pinot Noir wines are aged for 9-13 months and Syrah and Grenache for about 18-24 months. The wines of Château Séguinon change their names every year, but there are four in total: a blend dominated by Syrah, a blend dominated by Grenache, a blend dominated by Roussanne, and a blend of white wines dominated by Roussanne, and a sweet Mr Clankel.