Sunday, June 13, 2010

Sine Qua Non The Pontiff

Getting an allocation from an exclusive winery, such as Sine Qua Non (SQN), can be worth the wait, but do you have to buy everything they offer?

As a wine speculator, what you do want from SQN is Syrah and Grenache from the Eleven Confessions vineyard. If you are offered something else, do you take it? In the case of the 2008 The Pontiff (rose), my suggestion is to skip it, or sell it. Unlike their Syrah and Grenache, the SQN white and rose wines are just not buy-and-hold material.

The question remains, are allocations of the more desirable wines larger for the customers that buy all the other stuff? Fortunately, with Sine Qua Non at least, speculators don't need to worry too much about it. Even in this economy, Manfred Krankl's latest rose can be flipped without too much of a loss (current price $100, release price, $79). You'll lose money on shipping, but you'll break even on the bottle.