Our Provenance Guarantee
Purchase with confidence. All of our wines are selectively sourced and thoroughly inspected for authenticity and signs of poor storage. Accepted bottles are preserved in our climate-controlled cellar until they reach your doorstep. We have no storefront and no walk-in traffic, so nothing is moved or handled between inspection and shipping.
The bottle you see photographed is the bottle you receive (or fundamentally identical when multiple bottles are listed), and our commitment to you is that it arrives as represented. If it doesn’t, we want to hear from you.
Ratings & Tasting Notes:
99 points — Decanter, March 2023
Balanced, polished, seamless and elegant. Tasted at the winery, the wine showed expressive blue and violet wildflowers, boysenberry, graphite, cedarwood, spearmint and loamy earth. Medium-bodied and flush with pure, crunchy red cherry and plum fruit over blue and black-toned undercurrents, framed by long, silky, layered tannins and closing with rose petal. The reviewer called it “unquestionably in the running” for a 100-point upgrade, and a gorgeous showing from a challenging vintage.
99 points — James Suckling, March 2023
Fabulous Cabernet aromatics of blackcurrant, blueberry, bark, fresh mushroom and violet, carrying into a full body whose elegance builds through the finish and leaves a freshness and minerality lasting minutes. Best after 2028.
96 points — The Wine Independent, May 2024
Deep garnet-purple, with stewed plum, warm cassis and tapenade giving way to cardamom, charcoal, bay leaf and graphite. The medium- to full-bodied palate is taut with muscular black fruit and savoury sparks, supported by grainy tannins and well-knit freshness, finishing long and earthy.
96 points — Vinous, February 2023
Called “one of the great surprises of the year.” Energetic and vibrant in the glass, with more energy than the estate usually shows and all elements finely balanced. Dark blue and purple fruit, lavender, menthol, spice and leather fill out the layers effortlessly. Drinking window 2025 to 2035.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Screaming Eagle is the original California cult wine and still the most sought-after. Jean Phillips, a local real estate agent, bought a parcel in Oakville in 1986 and sold the fruit to neighbouring producers before deciding to make wine herself. The first release, roughly two hundred cases of the 1992, was rated 99 points by Robert Parker, and the estate’s reputation was made overnight. The 1997 and 2007 both went on to earn perfect scores. Production remains tiny, around five hundred cases a year, and nearly all of it goes to a mailing list that has been closed since 2000 with a waiting list thousands of names long. Stanley Kroenke acquired the property in 2006 and owns it outright today; Nick Gislason, who arrived from UC Davis at twenty-six, has been winemaker for over a decade. The 2020 is 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc, aged nearly two years in 65% new French oak.
2020 was the hardest recent year in Napa, marked by heat and by wildfire smoke that led many neighbouring estates to declassify their wine or skip the vintage entirely. Screaming Eagle picked and bottled, and critics have been unusually enthusiastic about the result, describing a wine with more energy and vibrancy than the house typically shows. Expect blackcurrant, boysenberry and crunchy red cherry with violets, graphite, cedar, menthol and loamy earth, framed by long, silky, layered tannins. It is built to age; give it until at least 2028.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Please note: The bottle shown is the exact bottle being sold.
Outstanding condition.
