2013 Scarecrow Cabernet - 100 pts

First Vintage! Any debut wine that is this impressive requires research. The story goes as follows: In 1945 the famed John Daniel Jr. who made so many historically great wines at Inglenook convinced a neighbor of his J. J. Cohn to plant 80 acres of Cabernet vines and the fruit became a component of Inglenook's series of great Cabernet Sauvignons. Cohn who owned the property and planted the vineyard at the insistence of John Daniel had a prominent career in Hollywood as chief of production at MGM where he played a role in the making of such movies as "Ben Hur" "Mutiny on the Bounty" and his favorite movie apparently "The Wizard of Oz" to which the Scarecrow label pays tribute.

When we first looked at the winery we were impressed as it had all the elements to become a legend; great bottling and packaging great story incredible website and all from the "oldest Cabernet vines in North America". If only the juice in the bottle lived up to our expectations......well it actually exceeded our expectations! We called Brett to tell him how amazing we thought the wine was. After a few hours, we made a friendly wager. We touted this wine as the "Next Screaming Eagle" and placed hundreds of clients into this wine thru their mailing list! For once, Parker agreed with us and gave the wine 98 points!! With such phenomenal juice and limited production this wine is destined to become a Cult Legend and who knows......maybe take claim to the throne?

Varietal	Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage	2013
Rating	100 RP
Bottle Size	750 ml
Bottle Quantity	1
Country	USA
Region	California
Location	North Coast
Producer	Scarecrow
Color	Red
Wine Type	Table

Robert Parker

100 RP - The prodigious 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, including fruit from some of the oldest Cabernet vines still in existence in Napa. This full-bodied classic displays notes of forest floor, earth, crÃ¨me de cassis, blackberry liqueur, licorice and some pen ink. It is dense, full-bodied, prodigiously rich, massive in intensity, yet relatively light on its feet. This great ballerina of a wine has extraordinary ripeness but pulls back from the edge before going over the top. There are 1,000 cases of this classic, which should age effortlessly for 30+ years. RP Scarecrow is one of the more intriguing stories in Napa Valley. Today the property is owned by Bret Lopez, grandson of J.J. Cohn, the famous movie executive whose name adorned the property until fairly recently. Lopez spent his childhood vacations here, and always retained a keen interest in the property. According to Lopez, the house remains furnished pretty much as it was when he was a child. Lopez then went on to build a career as a world-class photographer, but never lost his passion for the estate. Lopez teamed up with his neighbor Francis Ford Coppola to buy out his siblings when the property came up for sale. As part of the transaction, Lopez kept the parcels right in front of the house. Scarecrow is notable for its old vines planted on St. George rootstock rather than the ill-fated AxR1 rootstock that ultimately proved to be vulnerable to phylloxera. Today the wines are made by Celia Welch and show tremendous potential. Welch uses 90% new oak barrels and bottles with no fining or filtration. She prefers commercial yeast strains for the alcoholic fermentation, largely because the wines are made at a custom crush facility and it is therefore impossible to control the environment. After spending several hours at Scarecrow tasting and walking through some of the spectacular older, gnarly, head-trained vines, it is impossible not to conclude that the estate most likely needs its own winemaking facility and internal winemaking team to realize its fullest potential, all pretty standard among top-flight wineries in Napa Valley today.

Wine Spectator	95 WS -

Burghound

Varietal	Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage	2013
Rating	100 RP - 95 WS
Barrels	750 ml
Style	1
Owners	Bret Lopez
Region	California
Location	North Coast
Producer	Scarecrow
Winemaker	Celia Welch
Production	950 cases

2013 Scarecrow Cabernet - 750ml