2014 TESTA DEI CHERUBINI, Estate Grenache, Sine Qua Non. California

80% Grenache, 15.5% Syrah, 4% Petite Sirah, 0.5% Viognier; matured for 38 months in French oak (25% new wood).

We have just 3 bottles to sell; bought from the agent (James Doidge of the Wine Treasury) on release, and kept in our cellars since then.

98+ William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (August 2018) –
“Testa dei Cherubini Grenache: The 2014 Grenache Testa dei Cherubini saw fully 37.5 months in wood, some 25% new, but its influence is imperceptible; the wine is strikingly pure and vibrant. Krankl commented that the longer the wines spend in barrel, the more slowly they seem to evolve in bottle. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of juicy red cherries, peonies and plums, it’s initially quite reserved, becoming more expressive with air. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, layered and very concentrated, with strikingly fine-grained, revolved tannins, juicy acids and impressive length and depth. Like the 2015 Le Chemin Vers l’Hérésie also reviewed in this report, it’s remarkably pure and integrated and ranks as one of the finest Grenache bottlings I’ve tasted from Sine Qua Non. It’s also one wine that will clearly benefit from bottle age, no matter how tempting it may be when it’s released in November of this year.”