SQN Eleven Confessions Vineyard Syrah 2019

99pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2019 Syrah Eleven Confessions Vineyard is elegant and perfumed and includes 13.1% Grenache, 3.3% Petite Sirah and just a splash—0.8%—each of Viognier and Muskateller (a.k.a Muscat). It was crafted with 13% whole clusters, matured in 66% new French oak for around 39 months and was bottled in January 2022. This gorgeous Syrah opens over several days and never seems to diminish. It offers pure aromas of crème de cassis, tar, salami and ringing tones of violet. The full-bodied palate is incredibly velvety in texture, and despite its concentration and powerful style, it manages noticeable freshness and detail, with that magical violet perfume echoing across the long finish. This will develop gracefully in the cellar over the next two decades or more. 968 cases and 240 magnums were made.

99pts Jeb Dunnuck

A borderline perfect wine is the 2019 Syrah Eleven Confessions Vineyard, and if there was a version of Guigal's Côte Rôtie La Mouline from California, this would be it. Red and black fruits, flowery incense, iron, cured meats, spice box, and background oak all define this sensational wine, and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a layered, ultra-fine mouthfeel, no hard edges, and a great finish. It's already just about impossible to resist yet will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve for 20-25 years. The blend is 82% Syrah, 13% Grenache, 3% Petite Sirah, and the rest Viognier and Gelber Muskateller, aged 39 months in two-thirds new French oak.

99pts Vinous

The 2019 Syrah Eleven Confessions Vineyard is absolutely gorgeous. I would say it is nearly seamless, but bright acids drive a line of intensity through the fruit, lending notable freshness, tension and energy. All the elements are impeccably balanced in this magnificent, spellbinding Syrah from Elaine and Manfred Krankl. What a wine.

This is a tremendous set of wines from Elaine and Manfred Krankl. There’s plenty going on at Sine Qua Non these days, starting with a new winery in the Sta. Rita Hills that I was able to see prior to opening. The intensely colored building on Santa Rosa Road is pretty hard to miss. The Krankls expect to move some of their production to this facility in the near future. That could be a pretty big deal for a region that lacks a physical presence of iconic estates. Elaine and Manfred Krankl were visionaries in identifying the eastern sector of the Sta. Rita Hills as an ideal spot for Rhône varieties more than twenty years ago when virtually no one was thinking about Grenache and Syrah here. That spot, which the Krankls define as 'a warm site in a cool region,' is now Eleven Confessions.

SQN Eleven Confessions Vineyard Grenache 2019

100pts Jeb Dunnuck

The late bottled 2019 Grenache Eleven Confessions Vineyard is another undeniably great wine from this incredible estate and it tops out my scale. Based on 89% Grenache, 6% Syrah, 4% Petite Sirah, and the balance Gelber Muskateller (Muscat Blanc), all from the Eleven Confessions Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills, it spent 39 months in 50% new French oak, with the balance in 2- to 5-year-old barrels. It's a powerful, full-bodied, opulent Grenache that brings to mind a great vintage of Domaine de Marcoux's Vieilles Vignes with its gorgeous red and black fruits, smoked herbs, leather, and assorted spicy, sandalwood, and peppery nuances. Full-bodied on the palate, it has flawless balance, a deep, layered mid-palate, and velvety tannins. It brings that rare mix of richness and elegance that only Grenache can. Give bottles 2-4 years and enjoy over the following 15+.

98pts Vinous

The 2019 Grenache Eleven Confessions Vineyard is a wild, exotic wine. High-toned aromatics meld into a core of dark red/purplish fruit, lavender, rose petal, mint and new leather. There is a touch of volatile acidity that, for me, is not a signature of Sine Qua Non wines. Dollops of Syrah, Petite Syrah and Gelber Muskateller round out the blend.

97pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2019 Grenache Eleven Confessions Vineyard is made up of 89.4% Grenache, 5.5% Syrah, 4.1% Petite Sirah and 1% Gelber Muskateller (a.k.a. Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains). It was crafted using 35% whole clusters, matured for around 39 months in 50% new French oak barrels and demi-muids and was bottled in January 2022. Deep ruby-purple in color, it takes significant time to open and is mostly coiled and shy on day one. On day two, its aromas unfurl: cherry pie and wild berry jam scents are layered with tones of cured meat, peppercorn, bergamot and wildflowers. The full-bodied palate is seamless and ultra powdery in texture, with balancing bursts of juicy acidity that highlight pretty spice and floral tones that fan across the long finish. It deserves generous cellar time and will be long lived. 922 cases and 240 magnums were made.