April 6, 2024 - Nice but ... $$$$$. Not sure it is worth it.
December 8, 2023 - Needed about 1.5 hour decant
March 25, 2023 - Still so much like wild cherry cough drops in the nose. Big ripe style, yet still drinkable. Liked it but it lacks finesse.
March 11, 2023 - Great - reallg in perfect drinking spot right now. Layers of flavor and tannins have blended in seamlessly..
December 16, 2022 - WOTN. Head and shoulders above 17/18/19 Macdonald. 30 min double decant and it’s in a perfect place right now. Had a bottle in 2019 which was marginal but this was just exceptional. Finish goes on and on with layer upon layer of taste. Just oh so good. Drink now, it’s in its peak.
May 19, 2022 - Scarecrow - Complete Vertical 2003-2019 + 2x PNV: Non blind. Not decanted. It is obvious, why Scarecrow has the status it has. This is truly one of the very best Napa wines. A few observations: 1) The absolute highlight in almost all vintages is Scarecrow’s ability to combine aromatic density and intensity with absolute weightlessness. Very, very few Napa Valley wines achieve that kind of weightlessness - other than Harlan, probably no other wine that consistently over the vintages. More recent vintages are of course a touch less weightless (due to their youth) but are as light and airy as any wine in the respective vintage. 2) The wines have a lot of substance with a flavor profile with lots of red berries and floral notes complementing the dark Cabernet fruits, always lots of earthy minerality and some herbs and sensuous, luxurious oaky notes reminding me of Cheval Blanc. 3) While probably Bordeaux-esque for Napa standards in its appearance, it is still distinctively a Napa wine. In the early years, I even found a touch too much ripeness and some alcohol heat in the wines which doesn’t seem to be an issue in the vintages of this decade. 4) These wines all are great to drink, only the structured vintages of 2010, 2013 as well as the 2016 were not really open for business and would have needed decanting. All others showed great right out of the bottle.
TN: Intense, expressive nose with ripe dark and dark red fruit, some herbs and earthy notes. The nose is good but the palate is magic. On the palate this is the first vintage which shows more coffee and chocolate notes complementing the blue and red fruit, strawberries, with ripe cassis underneath. Earthy notes and minerality. Perfect structure and weightless. Good balance and harmonious. Great finish with good length. This is a complete wine from start to finish. My guess: if I could have followed it over an evening which would have brought out more complexity, it would be higher than the 95/96 pts.
Decanting: Not decanted. No extensive decanting needed.
May 12, 2022 - A complete Scarecrow vertical: A lovely, cool vintage resulting in a great expression of that weighltess intensity game that Scarecrow is mastering. Cranberry jelly, milk chocolate, just delicious to drink now!
January 4, 2022 - Hoo boy...this is drinking great. Took a few sips when we popped it--powerful, delicious fruit and oak punching you in the face. Decanted for about 90 minutes, by which time the wine had evolved significantly and was showing some secondary characteristics. Tannins are present but not overbearing.
September 10, 2021 - An absolute bruiser of a wine. Nose is highly expressive with notes of leather, cedar, smoke and dustiness. Mid palate remains complex mirroring the nose. It’s a full fist punch of depth and expression with a backbone of dark blue/ black fruit. If I’m being really picky the finish isn’t as long as I’d anticipate.
Monumental effort of integration and balance
September 10, 2021 - Sweetness morning grass dew on the nose with some leather, dusty humid room notes. Very distinct black fruit, blackberry jam, Creme de cassis with fresh blueberries behind it. Strong tobacco notes, cedar, minerality, graphite and subtle oak on the mid palate. Long 1 minute plush finish with very fine integrated tannins. This wine had a tremendous mouth feel that fully fills your entire mouth. The epitome of a big bold Napa cab. Decanted for 2 hours and drank over another 4. 99 only because I presume there could be a better vintage of this exact wine.