Chad Henderson

9.1

Lovely Italian wine. Taste of red cherry with smooth finish. Nice touch of oak and medium tannins. Happy Valentine’s Day at The Raven Restaurant. — 4 months ago

with Kristen

LM Segal

9.8

An absolutely stunning expression of Grenache that has completely resolved and gained an array of un-Krankl like subtlety in secondary notes too numerous to count. Black tea. Strawberry. Leather musk. Next level, 8-10 years left at least to evolve. — 2 years ago

S.R.Alexander

9.2

Deep deep wine, and a little hot for me — 6 years ago

Norman

9.6

Needed a longer decant but wonderful. Dad was skeptical “Grenache - what’s that?”. You have had it before dad, it’s good. Skeptical/irritated look. Ok, very little. Converted. Back three times for “just a little/ah might as well/yeah finish it off”. Kept it at his end of the table. — 7 years ago

Chris

9.1

Newly in love with Shiraz, I recently purchased a couple locally in our wine shop. This is smooth, soft to the nose and exactly the same to the pallet.
Very enjoyable! — 8 years ago

TJ Young

9.0

Blimey it’s limey, and oh so dry. 3 hours later, my lips are still puckered. No matter how much water I drink, my mouth is still dry as the desert. Oh musty oak, oh dark raven! — 8 years ago

with Cass

Clare McNamara

9.5

Definitely the Becker favorite ✌🏻 — 8 years ago

with Christopher

Conrad Green

9.5

It took a while to open up but this is beautiful. Very raven way. Lime, limestone, expansive and oily. Very precise ands detailed. Salinity and a long finish. This has years ahead but I’d rocking. — a year ago

with Major-General

David Shaw

8.9

Raven Oak barrel-aged cider from Liberty Ciderworks, Spokane WA. Golden brown, very good clarity, light carbonation with head on pour. Nice complex aromas, some wood and diacetyl in the mouth. 7.6% alc/vol A little too woody for me, but a well crafted cider — 3 years ago

Norman

9.2

Very good. Not as good as the Raven — 7 years ago

Spencer Spetnagel

9.0

Lemon verbena and minerality dominate the high tone nose. Playful and light across the palate, but has gorgeous depth to fill all the surfaces. A lingering and nuanced finish. Can’t wait to put my efforts into these vines. Thanks Isabelle for this vintage. — 7 years ago

John T

8.9

Very pleasant Texas Malbec. Consider it a solid red table wine. — 7 years ago

Erika B

8.9

Smoky medium@body with medium acid. tannins are medium, light enough for Thai food but also robust enough for a skirt steak. Not bad for $30 — 8 years ago

Norman

9.3

The Raven was better but I still loved this wine. Debating if I should have switched order. Probably. — 8 years ago

with Ginny

Raul Puga

9.3

Delicious — a year ago

with Mariana

Jake Hajer

9.1

Pinotage, cinsault and Pinot. A very good, well integrated blend. Just the right amount of smoke and old mineral. Baked cranberry and strawberry. Will be even better with a few years. — 5 years ago

Jody Scharf

9.0

Low alcohol red with some decent body. Quote the Raven nevermore! — 6 years ago

Peter Valkenburg

9.7

It was te Grenache !
But awesome !!! — 7 years ago

William Hughes

9.2

Great Odin’s Raven! Every bottle of this high quality, yet entry level Two Hands Shiraz, gets better than the last!
No longer that familiar black-purple ink color, rather the bricking is now a fine garnet. I could smell this all day! Aromas of tar, creosote, black plum, stewed blackberries, and a high end of wildflowers. Tar, olive juice, dark fruits with a touch of citrus oil all wonderfully mixed. I certainly think the screwcap helped the longevity, but the balance of acidity and silken tannins did their parts well. — 7 years ago

Roman Sukley

10

2005 Sine Qua Non "The 17th Nail in My Cranium" Sta. Rita Hills Syrah
Buckle your chinstraps folks because tonight we’re headed to the wine world equivalent of the summit of Mt. Everest. The absolute pinnacle in the Universe of wine for yours truly. The “it just don’t get any better than this” moment as far as grapes are concerned. Let me begin first with the name of this magic elixir. If memory serves, it was derived from a combination of the fact that this was the 17th Syrah produced in the Garage d’Or otherwise known as Sine Qua Non, and, in that same year, Manfred was felled by a rogue barrel requiring several staples to close the gash to his cranium, hence... "The 17th Nail in My Cranium"
The wine is a blend of 96.5% Syrah and 3.5% Viognier which was aged 38+ months prior to bottling. % alcohol. 4 hour decant at cellar temperature. Achromatic Raven black motor oil in my Zalto. Undoubtedly, the wines I find most compelling are of the “swirl, sniff and contemplate” variety, and this one might just set the benchmark. Explosive aromatic potpourri of blackberry jam, roasted coffee, fresh ground black pepper, graphite and spice with a faint floral arrangement lurking somewhere in the background. On the palate, sweet cherry compote and black currant with undertones of roasted game and black olives. A big, full bodied wine that’s light on its feet. A tightrope walker. A powerhouse with impeccable manners. Elegant and lithesome. A ballet dancer. Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov in his prime. Complex, with layers of flavors in beautiful, perfect harmony. Crosby, Stills & Nash singing “Suite Judy Blue Eyes.” The Beach Boys, “Good Vibrations.” Perfect balance. Pure, silky mouth feel. Immeasurable finish. And I mean that literally, as in it just continues on and on. Just utter perfection. A wine that is in fact so entirely perfect as to eliminate the need for a search for an alternative. The last word. To paraphrase The Bard, this wine “might (just) be the be-all and the end-all.”

— 8 years ago