Sine Qua Non, literal meaning: “An indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient, without which [there is] nothing”. Sounds like the premise of a Shakespearian play? Maybe, but with a viticultural love story as rich as this, no other title could possibly do the wine justice.

Sine Qua Non (or SQN to the initiated) is California’s best-kept secret, the wine you’ve never heard of. A refusal to expand production beyond the 3,500 cases a year, a six-year waiting list and a creative approach to naming wines (think “Eleven Confessions, the 17th Nail in my Cranium” for 2005, “Poker Face” for 2004, and “The Monkey Proprietary” for 2010) have given SNQ a cult following, and like most cults, you’ll need to part with a lot of money before you can join in.

Founded by charismatic Manfred Krankl in 1994, SNQ is nothing if not an enigma. A former restaurant director, he chose to eschew his professional success and build a winery based on palatable, big-bodied, Rhone-style reds. Syrah is his grape of choice and Krankl’s singularity has made his product more than covetable among wine investors. Additionally, Krankl hand draws a number of his labels and randomly adds them to cases before distribution, thereby upping the resale price of his bottle even further - a 1994 “Queen of Spades” - SNQ’s inaugural wine, with the hand-painted label would be in the region of €7,000, and even that is a conservative estimate. That’s twice the price of Screaming Eagle’s Cabernet Sauvignon, by the way.

Regardless of what you think of Krankl and his unorthodox approach to winemaking (his winery is in a disused warehouse in a run-down suburb of LA), or his obscure names, or his nebulous, philosophical stories (get on his mailing list to understand), there is no doubt that SNQ has produced some beauties. One of the only Californian (not Napa Valley) wines to have proven ageing appeal, the price of SQN can rise to astonishing heights - 1992 Black and Blue is currently (Q2 2019) trading at over €5,000 a bottle (and is interestingly cheaper in Europe where one assumes demand is slimmer). Investment here bucks all trends as far outstrips supply so whatever the price, whatever the points, you can be sure you this is a quirky yet sure-fire addition to your cellar.