Today we are delighted to be able to release Scarecrow 2015, one of the rarest wines in the world. The 2015 vintage appears to be the last of four banner years in Napa, broadly expected to surpass the 2014s and among the finest Estates, equalling the best of the 2012 and 2013 vintages. However, following four years of drought, the vines are feeling the effects, meaning that while quality is very high, unlike the aforementioned plentiful vintages, production is greatly reduced.
Scarecrow 2015 has already been awarded 99 points from The Wine Advocate, making it one its finest ever vintages, however, less than 900 cases were made. It therefore combines exceptional quality with rarity, very little making its way to European shores. Priced at £1,500 per case of three, our offer today is 20% below all releases we have seen thus far and a superb entry to market. The 2015’s release price today is at a 19% discount to the 2014, which today is priced at £1,850. Aside from being highly allocated and hugely desirable, Scarecrow is mentioned in the same breath as cult California Cabernets such as Screaming Eagle, yet it remains about 1/3 of the price. This perfect scoring 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wine is truly incredible, its ripe, balanced and elegant fruit profile means it can be enjoyed immediately, yet will improve in bottle for 30 years.
What makes Scarecrow special?
Although the Scarecrow winery was founded in 2002, the vines date back to the 1940s. In 1943, Joseph Judson Cohn, the famous MGM executive producer of The Wizard of Oz and Ben Hur, purchased a 79 ha property in Rutherford, adjacent to the Inglenook Winery. Soon after, his friend John Daniels, who had convinced Cohn to buy the land in the first place, agreed to manage the Estate. Together they planted grapes and the vineyard soon became known as one of the leading terroirs in Napa Valley. As a result the fruit has been used by Inglenook, Opus One and Phelps Insignia.
Today Scarecrow is recognised as having some of the oldest vines in the Napa Valley. When the prevalent thinking in Napa was to replant vineyards with European rootstock, John Daniels kept the original rootstock. This was considered risky at the time, but paid off when phylloxera destroyed the replanted rootstocks. As such Scarecrow’s vines boast some of the only vines from 1945 in the world. In 2009 these old vines poetically led to the creation of the most expensive bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon ever sold, with an auction lot of five cases of Scarecrow selling for $80,000. Two years later, five cases sold for $125,000, firmly establishing it as one of Napa’s cult Cabernets.
In 1996, Cohn died at the age of 100 and his heirs put the property up for sale to help resolve an inheritance dispute. From 1996 to 2002 the value of the property rose from an estimated $4 million dollars to $33.6 million, when Francis Ford Coppola of the Rubicon Estate Winery bought the Estate in a packaged deal with Cohn’s grandson, Bret Lopez. Coppola received 140 acres, while Lopez, and his partner Mimi DeBlasio, received the property’s buildings, 25 acres of planted vineyards and 2 acres of the original Cabernet vines planted in 1945. Lopez immediately employed the revered winemaker Celia Welch to create Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon. The name Scarecrow pays homage to one of the most popular characters in the Wizard of Oz.
Scarecrow 2015, 99 Points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Produced from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon leaps from the glass with gorgeous floral notes of red roses and lilacs over a core of black and red cherries, crushed black currants and baking spices plus hints of iron ore and dusty earth. The voluptuous, rounded, soft and sexy fruit slinks across the palace with incredible seamlessness and expression. Make no mistake, it is full-bodied and decadently powerful, but with a myriad or aromatic nuanced, finishing long, layered and boldly perfumed.
Scarecrow 2015
3×75 – £1,500 IB
1×150 – £1,500 IB (Very Rare)
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