Sine Qua Non

Sine Qua Non is California's most cult-mysterious and most label-art-obsessively-changing luxury Rhône micro-production boutique. Manfred and Elaine Krankl — the Austrian-born restaurateur and his wife whose personal obsession with producing the most hedonistically rich, most opulently textured, and most individually Wine Advocate 95–100 point-scoring California Rhône Syrah, Grenache, and Roussanne expressions has created the most genuinely cult-mysterious and most packaging-label-art-annually-changing wine program available from any California producer — established Sine Qua Non (Latin for 'without which not,' the most philosophically-essential and most logically-indispensable naming concept available to any California wine boutique) as the most personally Manfred-Krankl-hedonistic-Rhône-obsession and most label-art-annually-new-concept-changing luxury California wine micro-production.

The Sine Qua Non naming and labeling philosophy — where every vintage produces entirely different wine names (no wine is ever named the same thing twice) and entirely different label artwork created by Manfred Krankl himself (who is also a visual artist alongside his winery role) — creates the most cult-mysteriously-unpredictable and most annual-concept-name-changing luxury California wine micro-production appointment. Collectors never know what the next Sine Qua Non vintage will be called or what the label will look like until the wines are released.

Wine Advocate has scored Sine Qua Non Syrah, Grenache, and Roussanne at 95–100 points across multiple vintages, placing this most cult-mysterious and most label-art-annually-changing Rhône micro-production among the most consistently critically perfect and most collector-allocation-impossible luxury California wine programs alongside Harlan Estate, Screaming Eagle, and BOND.