Sine Qua Non – a tasting dilemma

Sine Qua Non, meaning 'a thing that is absolutely necessary', is said to be the archetypal cult wine. Apparently, you have to wait 7-10 years to get on the mailing list to be one of those lucky enough to get a few bottles from Manfred Krankl's total production of around 3,500 cases a year.

I had never tasted an SQN wine before and was delighted to be able to taste a line up of 10 wines at this Roberson tasting in West London last week, and intrigued at what I would find behind the idiosyncratic and teasing labels (above and...