March 3 wave here. Hoping they make enough to get to me. 100pt RP review will make this one go quickly. I was on the wish list last year and didn’t wind up with any… $500 is crazy but I’ll do it. Like many have said, a lot of cult cabs with lesser reviews are way more expensive. Really makes you appreciate what Dominus turns out year after year at their price point.
points. Hahahaha. Apparently the only thing that reached peak inflation several years ago and you just know WA and other critics are having internal discussions about how they can go higher. Jokes on them, most fools will spend the money regardless of the scores…we just end up bitching more about it than usual as we’re too afraid to “lose” out on the purchase privilege. A sad and pathetic unvirtuous circle that’s constantly reinforced by threads like this. Oh how we love to pile on.
Order in March 3rd. I don’t want to lose out. The king is dead, long live the king.
I decided to open this tonight due to the panic and concern of those being in waves 1, 2, or 3 in the upcoming release. It gave me the opportunity to sit back and wonder if this wine is truly worth the enormous cash outlay, or if it’s a case of FOMO. Based on this thread, it’s pretty obvious what the answer is, even at $450-$500. My question to those of you who are clamoring for this is simple. Why? I’m truly curious. Is it the idea of owning a Napa trophy? Is it that much better than any other Napa cabernet? Do you just like the bottle? I’m genuinely curious. This isn’t a shot at Scarecrow for their pricing. If people are du… willing to pay the price they ask, so be it. Me included. I just can’t relate to those so eagerly to willing fork over $1600 for three bottles of wine without a legit reason other than finally getting off the wait list. Anyway, cheers! This 2014 is easily 99 points, or something like that.
I think the small production and waitlist have really worked well for JJ Cohn (not the consumer) in keeping the semi-cult status of Scarecrow. It is definitely the rarity and exclusivity keeping prices high.
I don’t buy that its the ratings. A lot of major reviewers don’t even rate scarecrow and you can get Dominus (rated nearly always the same or higher) for half the price.
Its not the history of the estate. You can get Ridge Monte Bello (a Trial of Paris participant) at half the price.
The difference is these wines have 4x as many cases produced each year and you can buy them at most fine wine shops.
Totally agree that these aren’t perfect comparisons (pure cab v. cali-bourdeaux blends), but maybe thats part of it? Nearly all of the expensive cult napa cabs are pure cabernet. Why does it command a higher price than meticulously crafted blends? Certainly isn’t the case for cab in france.
And just to be clear, I’m still going to be super excited to get my little wooden box with fake hay!
Funny, the large format bottles of this wine don’t do as well on the secondary market. Think it’s because the large format premium is already built in.