I was on the Screagle list since the 1994. Usually drank 1 or 2 and sold the others. Great wine and easily worth it in that scenario. Eventually dropped off the list because there were easier ways to get a similar experience without the up front cash and the hassle of flipping. Bevan, Shafer Hillside, etc.
Reference point Bordeaux? I Have had the 89 Haut Brion a few times and will not argue with anyone claiming this is as good as Bordeaux gets. I’m happy to still have a few in the cellar. I would also add to the list, in no particular order:
1990 Margaux
1970 Petrus
1989 Petrus
1990 Petrus
1982 Latour
1959 Lafite - this was easily the best Bordeaux I’ve ever had. But a good bottle with reliable provenance is unobtainable at this point, so hard to use it as a reference.
appropos of nothing, one of the best tasting notes I ever saw on Cellartracker was for a 1995 Screaming Eagle:
7/13/2013 - THE GILDED SAGE WROTE:
Purchased in some quantity (and, I am told, at considerable expense) by great-uncle Alfred, presumably either under the influence of late-stage senility, or as a final white elephant with which to burden his family. He was, it turns out, a vulgarian to the last.
I have tasted this wine now on a number of occasions, when morbid curiosity overtakes better judgement, and have found it in each instance to be an utterly common and tawdry affair, with a nose like tinned prunes (one can only imagine), and a texture on the palate like some horrid and ineffectual remedy that a witch-doctor might force upon a consumptive. In short, this is a wine for the brutish and the senile, purchased by a man who was both. It is only to be hoped that death came for him before he managed to degrade himself and his name by serving this to the guests at his table.
Do they give anyone a sense of where they are on the list? Several years ago when Patrick was still there he intimated that I was “at the upper percentile of those next in line for advancement.” I know he’s been gone for a few years and no idea where I stand anymore
i think my first offer was '98 and cost under $300? i believe i got on the waiting list in 1993 or '94?..i recall there was no use of internet and had to fax everything in.
It is a little unclear if I am on the wait list, but they did point me toward their Jonata project in the Santa Ynez Valley. It has been a great find and I have really enjoyed everything that I have tried. Maybe in another decade …
I only waited a year! I signed up in 2005, and after Jean sold the winery in 2006, I wanted to make sure I was still on the list so I emailed SE…low and behold Charles Banks responded to me…we exchanged a couple emails, and he mentioned to me that he wanted his wines to get into the hands of people who will drink and enjoy them with friends/fams. I was SHOCKED when I saw the 2003 release envelope in the mail a few weeks later! Been a happy customer…and yes, I drink and share with friends/fams…ever since!
I sent an email asking if they could let me know when I joined the list . I did not ask where I was on the list. Sent a few days ago . No response yet.
Great thread, and here again is the dilemma. A bottle of Screaming Eagle or a flight for two to San Sebastián, a hotel for five days, dinner at Arzak, several days of grazing on Tapas. If you are discussing this level of cost in the secondary market, this is why I would be off to Spain.
I guess only WE get old and the criticizing of what others want to buy never does. It’s all so…old.
Tapas and Screaming Eagle must be mutually exclusive.
I signed up in 2005, and after Jean sold the winery in 2006, I wanted to make sure I was still on the list so I emailed SE…low and behold Charles Banks responded to me…we exchanged a couple emails, and he mentioned to me that he wanted his wines to get into the hands of people who will drink and enjoy them with friends/fams. I was SHOCKED when I saw the 2003 release envelope in the mail a few weeks later! ![[swoon.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f425e8dac3e7344bee264da02e55428971be23a9.gif "swoon"){kind=small}
Been a happy customer…and yes, I drink and share with friends/fams…ever since!