Sine Qua Non trained for 8 years!
We are very excited to offer these two amazing wines made by Maggie Harrison former assistant to Manfred and Elaine Krankl of Sine Qua Non.
In 2004 during her 7th year as assistant to Manfred Krankl at Sine Qua Non Maggie Harrison started making a small amount of Syrah under the Lillian Label. Along with her Syrah Maggie has produced a tiny amount of Cabernet from True Vineyard, located about 100 feet below the summit of Howell Mountain in Napa Valley. What a treat for us to be able to offer Maggie's amazing wines to St Louis. Quantities are limited.
Lillian is not particularly Syrah-like. It doesn’t scream out the usual cocktail of blackberries, bacon fat, and lavender. It always feels a bit more about the people and the places than the varietal. The wines are lavish, but there is refined rocky quality in them that defies description.
True Vineyard lies on a bench a few hundred feet below the summit of Howell Mountain. It was planted by Frank Dotzler in the late-90’s. The site is nine acres and was literally carved out of volcanic bedrock. It presents an entirely different feeling than the endless rows of vines that carpet the valley floor and lower hillsides. The oaks and pyres of excavated rock that surround the site instill a feeling of intimacy. The site and the wines that emerge from it are incredibly specific. As harvest approaches one can almost see the otherworldly purple aromas waft from out of the rock and amongst the ripening clusters. When the wines are young they taste chiseled. The lavish black fruit, violets and ample tannin are rendered clear by the rock. But this is not such a wine. This wine has returned to the surrounding forest. Its long, 19th century style elevage, has relieved the wine of all its edges. Violets have become roses and left free to drift among the leaves.
This wine takes the image of the Luthéal, a kind of prepared piano which expanded and extended the harmonic register of the piano.
270 cases produced
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