The best way I can think of to define a cult wine is a low production wine that is in high demand, highly rated and astronomically priced. Some would say Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon is the king of this class. Napa Valley is famous for being the home to many cult wines and Screaming Eagle is located in the Oakville part of Napa. To get an idea of how hard it is to buy this wine from its maker you have to sign up for its mailing list and if you’re lucky you’ll eventually move onto its purchase list. That’s if a spot becomes available.
A consistently high mark. One well know wine critic, Robert Parker, has more often than not rated Screaming Eagle vintages in the high 90s. The two vintages that stand out (and believe me you pay a large sum of money for them) are the 1992 and 1997 vintages. The 1992 vintage was the first and received a score of 99 points. The 1997 vintage received a rare 100 point rating.
A small production. The winery is said to produce roughly between 400 to 600 cases a year. Some of the early vintages had even smaller production; with the 1992 vintage only 175 cases were produced! The 93 vintage was even smaller coming in at 130 cases.
A consistently high price and some stories. There is no argument that to buy Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon directly from the winery is the best way to buy the wine. This is if you’re lucky enough to get on the purchase list. Out of curiosity I did a little after market search to see what prices were like. Vintages produced in the last few years are in the $1000+ range for a 750 ml bottle. Next looked at the 90s vintages and prices shot up. I searched around for the 1992 vintage and found it for sale as little as $7500 for a 750 ml and often saw it going for $10,000. So what about 1997? It can be found for around $3000 for a 750 ml. The 1993 has a similar price tag at around $3000 a 750ml. So how about some interesting stories. In NYC, a man at a restaurant orders $2000 bottle of Screaming Eagle accidentally while his intent was to purchase a $100 bottle of wine. Yikes! The 2008 Auction Napa Valley (a famous charity event) had 1 bidder purchase 6 magnum (1.5 ml) bottles of the 1992 Screaming Eagle for $500,000. The 2001 Auction Napa Valley event saw a generous bidder pay $650,000 for an Eight bottle set of 3.0 L bottle with the vintages ranging between 92-99.
Screaming Eagle Cabernet wine is just one cult wine that’s overly benefited from much positive press. There are several other options in purchasing rare and excellent wines. Perhaps I’ll be writing on them at some future point.
