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: Ripe but not too ripe nose, young and fresh, the whole fruit spectrum but with a dark core. Same on the palate, perfectly delineated blue and black fruit, a bit younger and with powerful black fruit and hence showing not as much red fruit and floral notes yet. Still a bit bold but beautiful and a very structured structured vintage for Scarecrow (and Napa) where the tannins still need time to fully melt and make the wine as weightless as the other vintages. The potential is great but the wine is not yet there. This is certainly a vintage with a very long life ahead. 94 pts with much more potential.
Decanting: Not decanted. This would have needed a few hours to open up and soften (butter wait a few years).
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A complete Scarecrow vertical: It's funny, but with wines as young as 2019, this for me was the only one that was really too young to drink.
A high potential wine with so much power but the tannin structure was so intense that it needs another 5 years before it really delivers that Scarecrow magic. By then it can be amazing
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Brought by a friend to a multi-party birthday (including his own) dinner at a restaurant about 30 minutes from home. Double decanted around 3 pm and brought to the restaurant and redecanted for 30+ minutes before the first taste but mostly consumed around 8-9pm. My first taste was pleasantly balanced and reminded me of Heitz Martha’s Vineyard with its distinct eucalyptus aromas along with graphite and black fruit (cassis and blackberry). Palate showed some tannin and medium acidity with some herbaceous undertones I found quite attractive. For hard-core modern Cab lovers this might be considered an off vintage but I thought it was delicious and more elegant and refined than expected. It did put on more weight and got more robust with time however. I liked it best at about the 3.5-4 hour point. While a nice contrast this was right up there with the 2012 Hanzell Ambassador 1953 chard and 1983 Chateau Margaux. At some points before the Margaux fully evolved I liked this the best of the 3. Close 2nd WOTN.
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8 hour slow ox and ready to go. Tasted blind vs other Napa big guns. Very well made, tannins still present but not overwhelming and a nice long finish. That said, was bested by a ‘13 Bevan Sugarloaf. Drink after giving plenty of air or hold.
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Decanted over cocktails. As usual with Scarecrow, this showed a magical combination of intensity and lightness on the palate with pure dark berry liqueur, dancing acid, firm tannins, and an evolution in the mouth with each sip. With air the tannins got a bit more grippy and it didn't last long enough to see what emerged on the other side. The outdoor setting on a warm Seattle summer evening may not have been ideal for such a fine wine but hey, you never know which bottle is going to be your last.
8 hour slow ox. Massive wine, amazing nose, quite a bit of sediment. It’s everything a Napa Cab should be. That said, I don’t quite think this bottle was ready. I’d suggest holding 2-3 more years as wine was still a bit too tight.
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What an experience! This wine was totally ready to be drank. Decanted before dinner and really took to the food from a Spanish Steakhouse. Dark inky look. Massive tannins and long long finish. Smells of bunches of red ripe fruits and even a floral scent to it. Wine developed over the meal and was standing out during dessert! Great experience!
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Decanted over cocktails and served. Perfectly balanced on the palate with an impossible lightness despite intense concentration and focus. Redcurrant, along with touches of tobacco leaf and vanilla, fills the mouth with just the right level of firm tannins and supporting acid.
I don't know what they do to make this wine but it's magical and presents so many different ways by vintage and maturity, yet always wonderful.
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Phenomal wine! Super jammy with lots of red ripe fruits. Tannins were still very present and gripping. Finish was more than a minute long. One of the better bottles of Scarecrow that I have had!
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Starts with a mid-palette of cherry, covered in dark chocolate, and a soft tanic finish. Aromas of grass and blackberry. Goes wonderfully with cheescake, chicken parmesan, and spicy rigatoni.
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I don’t know what a 100 is so I gave this a 99. When you bring the glass to your nose it’s as if you have been airlifted to the grand finale of a Fourth of July fireworks show. This is drinking as smooth as it gets and it’s finish goes on and on.
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An extremely well made wine. Very, very good but not quite rising to “great” level, which I think is a function of time. This is a big wine with dark fruit, but isn’t brooding or closed. Tannins are silky and add versus subtract to the experience. I would hold my remaining bottles for several years. I think this is on an upwards trajectory and I don’t want to get in the way.
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This was open for about 16 hours slow ox. Beautiful ruby color, displaying notes of fresh white flowers, black/blue fruit and wet stone. This is a magnificently textured wine with impeccable balance and lots of deep mineral driven flavors, complemented by blackberries, cherries and a hint of plum. Very pure fruit that builds progressively on the pallet into a very, very long finish. This wine reflects the cooler 2010 vintage very well. 96+
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Amazing wine. Dark as night, still a bit tight even after several hour decant, but the structure and fruit are in such nice balance right now. The suppleness of the blackberry liqueur and the tobacco, cinnamon and nutmeg that give it backbone.... wow.... This is in a nice spot with a few hours decant and will probably go the distance for another 10-15 years.
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This is my first Scarecrow, and I was not at all disappointed. A huge wine with wonderful textures, complexity, and beautiful fruit. Definitely one of the top 5 Cabernet Sauvignon's I've tasted. While I also like the Tin Man, this is a big step up.
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Great wine has it all !!! Fruit forward jammy with black fruits hits of chocolate, cassis. Length to its finish with some earthy tones. Medium to soft tannins. This wine still has a lot of mileage in it, but very enjoyable right now.
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brambleberry, big chewy fruit bomb. huge wine. But is it better than an old vine zinfandel? not sure. disappointed in this but that's the direction my palate is moving. off the list for a reason
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Just flat out great. Can use a few more years or a few more hours in the decanter, but this has it all. Smooth tannins and juicy fruit but not jammy at all. Powerful mid palate full of berries and toasty oak. The long, slightly dusty and gravelly finish is very reminiscent of Pessac Leognon.
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My first ever Scarecrow. Needs time to fully integrate, but great fruit on the nose and palate, plush mouthfeel, notes of cedar and maybe tobacco. I liked it a lot.
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all day decant nose - jammy fruit, dried fruit mouth - intense and concentrated, slightly bitter fruit on the back end. cocoa finish. Long. Relatively closed in spite of prolonged decant. Hold.
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Too early to drink this monster. Open for 2.5 hours before drinking, did not decant. Alcohol came out strong for about the first 30-45 minutes in the glass. It eventually calmed down and tasted like traditional Scarecrow, but the finish never quite evened out and was too big and tannic. Not fully integrated.
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5/19/2022 - Cailles wrote: 94 Points
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: Ripe but not too ripe nose, young and fresh, the whole fruit spectrum but with a dark core. Same on the palate, perfectly delineated blue and black fruit, a bit younger and with powerful black fruit and hence showing not as much red fruit and floral notes yet. Still a bit bold but beautiful and a very structured structured vintage for Scarecrow (and Napa) where the tannins still need time to fully melt and make the wine as weightless as the other vintages. The potential is great but the wine is not yet there. This is certainly a vintage with a very long life ahead. 94 pts with much more potential.
Decanting: Not decanted. This would have needed a few hours to open up and soften (butter wait a few years).
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5/12/2022 - G_H wrote: 95 Points
A complete Scarecrow vertical: It's funny, but with wines as young as 2019, this for me was the only one that was really too young to drink.
A high potential wine with so much power but the tannin structure was so intense that it needs another 5 years before it really delivers that Scarecrow magic. By then it can be amazing
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2/26/2022 - oldwines Likes this wine: 97 Points
Brought by a friend to a multi-party birthday (including his own) dinner at a restaurant about 30 minutes from home. Double decanted around 3 pm and brought to the restaurant and redecanted for 30+ minutes before the first taste but mostly consumed around 8-9pm. My first taste was pleasantly balanced and reminded me of Heitz Martha’s Vineyard with its distinct eucalyptus aromas along with graphite and black fruit (cassis and blackberry). Palate showed some tannin and medium acidity with some herbaceous undertones I found quite attractive. For hard-core modern Cab lovers this might be considered an off vintage but I thought it was delicious and more elegant and refined than expected. It did put on more weight and got more robust with time however. I liked it best at about the 3.5-4 hour point. While a nice contrast this was right up there with the 2012 Hanzell Ambassador 1953 chard and 1983 Chateau Margaux. At some points before the Margaux fully evolved I liked this the best of the 3. Close 2nd WOTN.
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6/5/2021 - EM_MB Likes this wine: 94 Points
8 hour slow ox and ready to go. Tasted blind vs other Napa big guns. Very well made, tannins still present but not overwhelming and a nice long finish. That said, was bested by a ‘13 Bevan Sugarloaf. Drink after giving plenty of air or hold.
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8/4/2020 - Quiet Lion Likes this wine: 98 Points
Decanted over cocktails. As usual with Scarecrow, this showed a magical combination of intensity and lightness on the palate with pure dark berry liqueur, dancing acid, firm tannins, and an evolution in the mouth with each sip. With air the tannins got a bit more grippy and it didn't last long enough to see what emerged on the other side. The outdoor setting on a warm Seattle summer evening may not have been ideal for such a fine wine but hey, you never know which bottle is going to be your last.
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2/15/2020 - EM_MB Likes this wine: 96 Points
8 hour slow ox. Massive wine, amazing nose, quite a bit of sediment. It’s everything a Napa Cab should be. That said, I don’t quite think this bottle was ready. I’d suggest holding 2-3 more years as wine was still a bit too tight.
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12/30/2019 - Bcw1989 wrote: 96 Points
What an experience! This wine was totally ready to be drank. Decanted before dinner and really took to the food from a Spanish Steakhouse. Dark inky look. Massive tannins and long long finish. Smells of bunches of red ripe fruits and even a floral scent to it. Wine developed over the meal and was standing out during dessert! Great experience!
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10/18/2019 - Bcw1989 wrote:
Corked
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9/26/2019 - 89grange wrote: 98 Points
Elegant, smooth tannins. Great fruit...
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9/20/2019 - Acohen Likes this wine: 97 Points
Intense dark currant, plum with purely integrated tannin and spectacular finish
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8/29/2019 - Quiet Lion Likes this wine: 100 Points
Decanted over cocktails and served. Perfectly balanced on the palate with an impossible lightness despite intense concentration and focus. Redcurrant, along with touches of tobacco leaf and vanilla, fills the mouth with just the right level of firm tannins and supporting acid.
I don't know what they do to make this wine but it's magical and presents so many different ways by vintage and maturity, yet always wonderful.
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8/3/2019 - Bcw1989 wrote: 97 Points
Phenomal wine! Super jammy with lots of red ripe fruits. Tannins were still very present and gripping. Finish was more than a minute long. One of the better bottles of Scarecrow that I have had!
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7/18/2019 - Niagara wrote:
I think this may be closing down. Still an amazing wine but neither in its precocious youth or mellow older age now. I’d wait.
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3/21/2019 - Dasher wrote: 98 Points
Super smooth. Could use another 10 years.
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1/19/2019 - SAS54 Likes this wine: 96 Points
Starts with a mid-palette of cherry, covered in dark chocolate, and a soft tanic finish. Aromas of grass and blackberry. Goes wonderfully with cheescake, chicken parmesan, and spicy rigatoni.
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12/23/2018 - canefan Likes this wine: 99 Points
I don’t know what a 100 is so I gave this a 99. When you bring the glass to your nose it’s as if you have been airlifted to the grand finale of a Fourth of July fireworks show. This is drinking as smooth as it gets and it’s finish goes on and on.
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9/26/2018 - brianngibson wrote: 98 Points
Seems to just be getting better.
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2/24/2018 - jclary wrote: 95 Points
An extremely well made wine. Very, very good but not quite rising to “great” level, which I think is a function of time. This is a big wine with dark fruit, but isn’t brooding or closed. Tannins are silky and add versus subtract to the experience. I would hold my remaining bottles for several years. I think this is on an upwards trajectory and I don’t want to get in the way.
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12/26/2017 - Jmac56 Likes this wine: 96 Points
Big jammy wine with loads of fruit- drank more like a shiraz but who cares when it's mind blowing.
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12/3/2017 - Corrie Likes this wine: 94 Points
Outstanding!
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12/3/2017 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 96 Points
This was open for about 16 hours slow ox. Beautiful ruby color, displaying notes of fresh white flowers, black/blue fruit and wet stone. This is a magnificently textured wine with impeccable balance and lots of deep mineral driven flavors, complemented by blackberries, cherries and a hint of plum. Very pure fruit that builds progressively on the pallet into a very, very long finish. This wine reflects the cooler 2010 vintage very well. 96+
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6/13/2017 - tp096255 Likes this wine: 96 Points
Amazing wine. Dark as night, still a bit tight even after several hour decant, but the structure and fruit are in such nice balance right now. The suppleness of the blackberry liqueur and the tobacco, cinnamon and nutmeg that give it backbone.... wow.... This is in a nice spot with a few hours decant and will probably go the distance for another 10-15 years.
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4/4/2017 - brianngibson wrote: 97 Points
Unctuous. Inky. Cassis and vanilla, with a wet stone gravel texture.
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11/24/2016 - Jmac56 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Earthy gritty and tannic- got bigger and bigger after an hour.
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10/6/2016 - jhieb Likes this wine: 98 Points
This is my first Scarecrow, and I was not at all disappointed. A huge wine with wonderful textures, complexity, and beautiful fruit. Definitely one of the top 5 Cabernet Sauvignon's I've tasted. While I also like the Tin Man, this is a big step up.
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10/3/2016 - jperez68 Likes this wine: 97 Points
Great wine has it all !!! Fruit forward jammy with black fruits hits of chocolate, cassis. Length to its finish with some earthy tones. Medium to soft tannins. This wine still has a lot of mileage in it, but very enjoyable right now.
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11/11/2015 - soyhead wrote:
brambleberry, big chewy fruit bomb. huge wine. But is it better than an old vine zinfandel? not sure. disappointed in this but that's the direction my palate is moving. off the list for a reason
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7/6/2015 - Mike V wrote: 93 Points
Really nice wine. This bottle was consumed too young. I wish I could afford to keep purchasing.
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4/3/2015 - sandwich Likes this wine: 96 Points
Just flat out great. Can use a few more years or a few more hours in the decanter, but this has it all. Smooth tannins and juicy fruit but not jammy at all. Powerful mid palate full of berries and toasty oak. The long, slightly dusty and gravelly finish is very reminiscent of Pessac Leognon.
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6/1/2014 - jeffm_fla Likes this wine: 94 Points
My first ever Scarecrow. Needs time to fully integrate, but great fruit on the nose and palate, plush mouthfeel, notes of cedar and maybe tobacco. I liked it a lot.
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1/16/2014 - soyhead wrote:
all day decant
nose - jammy fruit, dried fruit
mouth - intense and concentrated, slightly bitter fruit on the back end. cocoa finish. Long. Relatively closed in spite of prolonged decant. Hold.
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8/17/2013 - Jeastes wrote: 97 Points
Outstanding Cab
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5/17/2013 - OakvilleGrade Likes this wine: 92 Points
Too early to drink this monster. Open for 2.5 hours before drinking, did not decant. Alcohol came out strong for about the first 30-45 minutes in the glass. It eventually calmed down and tasted like traditional Scarecrow, but the finish never quite evened out and was too big and tannic. Not fully integrated.
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