Really on the fence for the first time. If someone is excited to take, please PM me…offered two six packs and three white.
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I had a little pause but bought. When I finally retire I will drop their list.
Anyone in the north east sharing, let me know!
Anyone in the north east sharing, let me know!
I drink a lot of these so I keep buying them. And my wife is supportive. So it all works out okay here 
I have no experience with Faethem, but Andremily is definitely the poor man’s SQN. Not the bargain it once was, but significantly cheaper than the old man. From my experience, you would be hard pressed to pick out the standard (spring) SQN release versus Andremily Syrah in a blind tasting.
I wonder how hard it would be to tell regular SQN from the EBA if you were tasting blind?
Easily put to the test! Hmmmmmmmm
I’ve only opened one Fingers Crossed syrah and grenache, and both were nothing like the monster Andremily and SQNs (and Albans) that I’ve had. The below wines were tasted together a few years ago and majority chose the Reva as WOTN, though stylistically they were so similar I wouldn’t have been able to tell which was which if the tasting were blind.
2014 Sanguis Bossman Syrah
2013 Alban Reva
2015 Andremily Syrah
2013 Next of Kyn
2012 Sine Qua Non Syrah Touché
I think the Eleven Confessions wines (“EBA”) are more structured and will age longer. Not suggesting that the “regular” wines won’t age (IMO all of the cuvees have shifted over the last decade and taken on characteristics suggesting they’ll age longer). I think in general it would be relatively easy to spot the Eleven Confessions vs. the Estate wines, but now that the question has been asked I aim to find out
Been buying Andremily since their first release. Still an incredible deal. Got off the SQN list last year and after 3 allocations really considering just getting the minimum SQN I can and going for more Andremily. It’s much better for my wallet.
That said, agree with you that you’d be hard pressed to pick the Syrah’s apart tasting blind. I slightly prefer the SQN to the Andremily when they’re younger, but that’s personal taste preference. Very excited that Binns got ahold of some G2 fruit. Looking forward to tasting that side by side with the Saxum G2 once I get them both into my cellar.
I have long suspected that the “regular” and EBA wines from the same vintage would converge on roughly the same experience at full maturity but that they would get there in a different way. I have since amended that line of thought to appreciate that full maturity is missing some of the point of these wines for my cellar; thus I will likely only test my hypothesis accidentally.
If I could get enough hepatic capacity interested, I’d do some side-by-side comparisons on a regular basis. As it stands, I tend to only open one bottle at a time with these bruisers.
Cheers,
fred
I needed to look up hepatic–very nice
I think I’m going to start trying to do two bottles at a time, one Eleven Confessions and one Estate, and either the Syrah or the Grenache, and see if I can tell a difference. Hopefully I’ll have some interesting data over the next 6 months and remember to report back!
if you open two at once, the remembering will become the challenge for sure! 
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Upon reflection, the “regular” wines are usually (but not always) approachable earlier than the EBAs, so direct comparison is difficult. I did do one a few years back with 2011 Dark Blossom and Patine. Dark Blossom was the winner there. Last year, I found the 2017 Hunter/Victim wines very approachable but I wouldn’t consider opening an EBA that young.
That’s probably a better way of explaining what I was trying to say. I just opened a 2017 Eleven Confessions Syrah and I’ve probably had half a dozen of the Hated Hunter. IMO, the Eleven Confessions will probably outlive the Hated Hunter by 10+ years, but I think the Hated Hunter is more approachable today. I used to think all of the SQN wines were really approachable just off the UPS truck, but I think the Eleven Confessions wines, while still quite good, are better with a couple years of age (relative to the vintage) on them (not unlike the whites, which hit an amazing window starting around age 7
Is $250 for a bottle or a magnum?
Alain
Per bottle, the estate box is six bottles
$325 when you add in tax and shipping to NYC.
I moved from CA to TX a year ago and I will confess I have more appreciation for how much it costs to ship out of CA That said, it’s a consequence of living where I choose to live, not a problem that a winery has foisted on me or needs to solve for me. (To be clear I do NOT think anybody in this thread is suggesting that!)
I started with This is Not an Exit, so that’s a 2.716% annual compounded price inflation since 2009. Since 2004, that’s a 2.434% compounded rate. Regrettable, but not outrageous. It all comes down to whether you can afford it. If you could afford $200 in 2004, and you are not on a fixed income, you should be able to afford $280 in 2018. Other than that, the price increase in SQN is a first world problem. I am lucky (some would say blessed) to be able to afford it; I regularly open it and share glasses with friends; and it is a lot cheaper than a lot of other hobbies. Think country club dues (not me).
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