Screaming Eagle winery

ack

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I have the latest Decanter issue in my hands, and they feature this ultra-rare winery in Napa - Screaming Eagle. They claim they make 500-800 cases a year of a Cab blend with only the finest grapes (and all others are simply thrown away), so sought after that auctions have fetched up to $500K for a 6-lt bottle. Fine and Rare in London have 30 bottles of a variety of vintages, each one averaging about 1,000 pounds, no one's tasted it. When a new vintage is released, customers are restricted to three bottles (@ ~$750/bottle), and they tend to drink one, cellar the second and sell the third. No real pictures of the property so as to not be located, no entrance signs, no one allowed to visit except by invitation. It all started with the 1992 vintage, reviewed in 1995 by Parker who gave it a perfect 100, and they only produced 200 cases. Sold a few years ago, but still makes presumably perfect wines.

Anyone ever try their wine? What's up with this winery? Since the closest I'll come to seeing this bottle is the magazine cover, at least I can report that it sits next to a 2009 Chateau D'Aiguilhe in the picture, and that I have had and it's impressive...
 

puroagave

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Sep 29, 2011
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screaming eagle is part of the trinity of great california cult wines along with harlan and shafer hillside. i've had a glass of SE cab, it was either a 99 or 100 pt wine - and yes it was spectacular. was it worth $2500/bottle (at the time) i cant say b/c $100/bottle is about my pain threshold (caymus special selection, for one)
 

rockitman

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Sep 20, 2011
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screaming eagle is part of the trinity of great california cult wines along with harlan and shafer hillside. i've had a glass of SE cab, it was either a 99 or 100 pt wine - and yes it was spectacular. was it worth $2500/bottle (at the time) i cant say b/c $100/bottle is about my pain threshold (caymus special selection, for one)

I see these wines on vinfolio.com. I guess these wines are what's best ? Shafer seems to have a few reasonably priced bottles. Thanks for the heads up.
 

Johnny Vinyl

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May 16, 2010
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Start at 3:15.......

 

audioguy

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Apr 20, 2010
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John: Thanks for posting. There are a very very large number of audiophiles who would be fooled just as the "expert" wine tasters were if the same kind of things were done to themas were done here. Love it and will forward to a bunch of my wine drinking friends.
 

ack

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I enjoyed that video 100%. I have been fighting "experts" all my life - 'show me the science' is what works here. In particular, the piece on management experts was spot on - it reminds me of those fake VPs in my field (computer software), who jump from company to company every 18 months selling "expertise" (bullying describes it better), when in fact they know ___t. I love watching these guys eventually end their careers at 50 when they can barely keep a job anymore. This is what the video failed to mention - what happens to fake experts after 50.
 

rockitman

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Fine wine seems no different from hi end audio....the are objective measures that are important yet there are even more subjective measures that ultimately win the day for a particular brand.
 

puroagave

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at 4:10 theres a great example of expectation bias. the producer of this vid is bent on making wine lovers look like fools, at the end of the day you pays you money and you takes your choice. i mention caymus because thats the point at which better wines become a blur to me and i cant justify the extra freight.
 

KeithR

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May 7, 2010
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an old colleague of mine was scraping up cases of Screaming Eagle 97s for like 2400/case back in 2000. Worth a mint now!
 

thase13

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Feb 22, 2018
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Necroposting in case anyone cares anymore.

Screaming Eagle is a wine of exceptional beauty and purity. A blend of estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot, Screaming Eagle possesses smooth, fine-grained tannins, a unique and distinctive nose, and an extraordinary freshness that is never over-extracted, over-ripe, over-oaked, or unbalanced in the mouth. The Oakville winery has one of the longest waitlists and limits annual mailing list allocations to one three bottle case per customer. The waiting list is nearing 9-10 years despite the winery raising its bottle price several times over the past decade and not allowing winery tours. The price for the current 2015 vintage was $1050/bottle or $3150 plus shipping for the three-bottle case. The winery also produces a predominantly Merlot-based second wine called Second Flight and an ultra-rare Sauvignon Blanc.

The original owner was Jean Phillips and over the course of her ownership she had two winemakers overseeing the wine: Heidi Peterson Barrett and Andy Erickson. The winery was purchased by Charles Banks and Stan Kroenke and Charles Banks eventually sold his stake to Stan Kroenke (owner of the Rams, Nuggets, and Avalanche) who now is now the sole owner. The current winemaker is Nick Gislason who used to work as Andy Erickson's assistant when he was with the winery.

Even though the wine can be found in a few select retailers and restaurants, private ownership of the wine is tracked. Each bottle comes with a holographic seal and a bottle identification/tracking number. Screaming Eagle does not tolerate unauthorized secondary market flipping and there have been cases where mailing list members have been dropped due to engaging in that activity. While Screaming Eagle currently shares the "most coveted" (per the current longest waiting list times) spotlight with MacDonald and Sine Qua Non it has, without question, established a strong track record of living up to its reputation as one of the finest wines made in America. An ideal candidate for What's Best Forum.
 

ack

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Thanks! Funny coincidence, a school friend of my son's - who does not come from a wealthy family - claims his grandfather, who is a wine enthusiast, does own lots of Screaming Eagles, and he gave them a bottle over Xmas. The boy claimed his parents were gaga over the wine and they couldn't believe what they were drinking. That's probably the closest I'll come to this wine, which is not close enough.
 

Bruce B

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Apr 25, 2010
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Wonder who owns the trademark for "Screaming Eagle".... the winery or Harley-Davidson!
 

thase13

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Feb 22, 2018
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Thanks! Funny coincidence, a school friend of my son's - who does not come from a wealthy family - claims his grandfather, who is a wine enthusiast, does own lots of Screaming Eagles, and he gave them a bottle over Xmas. The boy claimed his parents were gaga over the wine and they couldn't believe what they were drinking. That's probably the closest I'll come to this wine, which is not close enough.
The epic 1992 vintage released in 1995 was $50/bottle... IIRC, prices held relatively steady ($75 in 1996 up to $150/btl) for around 6 years after that and then the price pressures caused by the ridiculous secondary market prices set in and that kicked off a race to the top between Harlan Estate and Screaming Eagle. First a pop to $300 in 2002 (for the 1999 vintage) and then to $500 in 2006 (for the 2003 vintage), then $750 in 2009 (for the 2006 vintage), then $850 in 2013, $950 in 2017, and finally $1050 in 2018. If your son's friend's grandfather started purchasing in 1995, then he realistically could have amassed a small stockpile (7-8 vintages or so) at "reasonable" cost-averaged price before prices spiked in 2006 and began their steady, annual, uphill climb. It'll be even more interesting what will now that LVMH took a stake in Colgin and Schrader was sold to Constellation. Wine auction prices are down after two major cases of fraud and demand is weaker in Asia. Add the trauma of the 2017 Napa and Santa Barbara forest fires and the comparatively small harvest of 2015 into the mix and it'll be interesting to see how the industry responds.

If you can get past the concept of drinking your money then it doesn't get any better than this. Quite frankly, it was easier to do at $50-$175/bottle and becomes more of a special occasion wine at $500 and beyond. However, it's not inconceivable to pop one on release and then pop the others at 5-10 year intervals. I'd rather commit the sin of drinking a wine too early, than opening it and discovering it's dead.
 

Down Under

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Jun 26, 2014
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If you can get past the concept of drinking your money then it doesn't get any better than this. Quite frankly, it was easier to do at $50-$175/bottle and becomes more of a special occasion wine at $500 and beyond. However, it's not inconceivable to pop one on release and then pop the others at 5-10 year intervals. I'd rather commit the sin of drinking a wine too early, than opening it and discovering it's dead.

Couldn't agree more with your last sentence.
 

marty

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Apr 20, 2010
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Fine wine seems no different from hi end audio....the are objective measures that are important yet there are even more subjective measures that ultimately win the day for a particular brand.

+1 Christian, but it's more than that. Anybody can pick a great wine from a wine list or retailer if cost is not a consideration. The trick is finding a wonderful bottle at an "affordable" price. The older I get, the more I value the wisdom of that approach. To be honest, I've had more than my share of the greatest wines ever made. Much of that was due to the generosity of friends with incredible cellars as well from more modest cellars such as my own. In audio, where the "music" is the thing, for oenophiles, the food pairing is the thing, along with the friends who are there to enjoy the experience. It's not just about "what is the greatest wine?" as that is a rather unenlightened question. Sure, everyone has favorites, and if you are fortunate, some do not cost a king's ransom. But like audio, genuine enjoyment can be had for a relatively modest price.
 

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
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+1 Christian, but it's more than that. Anybody can pick a great wine from a wine list or retailer if cost is not a consideration. The trick is finding a wonderful bottle at an "affordable" price. The older I get, the more I value the wisdom of that approach. To be honest, I've had more than my share of the greatest wines ever made. Much of that was due to the generosity of friends with incredible cellars as well from more modest cellars such as my own. In audio, where the "music" is the thing, for oenophiles, the food pairing is the thing, along with the friends who are there to enjoy the experience. It's not just about "what is the greatest wine?" as that is a rather unenlightened question. Sure, everyone has favorites, and if you are fortunate, some do not cost a king's ransom. But like audio, genuine enjoyment can be had for a relatively modest price.

Marty - would you be open to sharing if we opened a new thread? Great Wines under $200, under $100, under $50, under $25?
 

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