Screaming Eagle sauvignon blanc fetches $2,500 a bottle
Screaming Eagle, the Napa winery known for its cabernet sauvignon that fetches high prices, has released six hundred bottles of sauvignon blanc. Offered to “active members” on its mailing list for $250 a bottle, the offer came with the condition that they not resell it. In 2006, Stan Kroenke, owner of Arsenal and the Denver Nuggets and spouse of Ann Walton Kroenke, purchased Screaming Eagle and replanted some of the vineyards, including some sauvignon blanc.
Six of the bottles have found their way to auction, where the lot closed with a winning bid of $13,000. To whomever paid over $2,500 a bottle (including the 19.5% buyer’s premium), I say…well, YOU finish the sentence in the comments!
Jun
23
2012
On June 23rd, 2012 at 10:05 am ,Trey wrote:
…you’re a dummy and have way too much money.
On June 23rd, 2012 at 10:14 am ,John Gilman wrote:
… very glad to see an underrated grape variety finally staring to get some overly late respect- just hope the bottles do not premox.
On June 23rd, 2012 at 10:15 am ,holly wrote:
There’s a fool born every minute.
On June 23rd, 2012 at 10:40 am ,RobinC wrote:
what is it with Screaming Eagle? Merry Edwards makes the best sauvignon blanc.
On June 23rd, 2012 at 10:44 am ,Dino wrote:
Wow…what, why? Give me Haut Brion Blanc any day!
On June 23rd, 2012 at 11:23 am ,Bob Rossi wrote:
… you could have bought a round-trip ticket to France and had enough left over to stock up on Loire Sauvignon and Crottin de Chavignol.
On June 23rd, 2012 at 11:42 am ,Whitney wrote:
I wonder if the bidder was someone not very familiar with wine or the English language and thought they were bidding on the Cabernet Sauvignon? Other than stupidity, I can’t think of another reason that would happen!
On June 23rd, 2012 at 12:12 pm ,Mike G wrote:
I have a bottle of Pinot Sauvignon Petite Blanc that I would part with for a cool grand or a bridge in Florida … Your choice.
On June 23rd, 2012 at 1:21 pm ,Chuck Antonio wrote:
— quit trying to be a prima-donna and just enjoy a good wine like the rest of us.
On June 24th, 2012 at 10:10 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
John G – Do you really think that Napa is the place best suited to sauvignon blanc to have it gain more respect? Also, I wonder if this Screagle version sees time in new wood, a la fumé blanc? Do you really think it is underrated? On it’s own it is far more often underwhelming imho. Also, the most expensive renditions are mostly Bordeaux blanc, and there it’s arguably the semillon that adds the intrigue…
Bob Rossi – exactly!
Whitney – hard to keep all those sauvignons straight! 😉
On June 24th, 2012 at 10:17 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
PS John – if you do review any sauvignon blanc again from anywhere, you can point out what a relative bargain it is, e.g. “…and a terrific value priced at $2,425 less than the Screaming Eagle SB.” or “buy 15 cases of this Sancerre for the price of one Screagle SB.” 😉
On June 24th, 2012 at 9:13 pm ,Dave Erickson wrote:
Jeez, even Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fume Asteroide doesn’t go for more than $700.
On June 25th, 2012 at 4:05 pm ,Damien wrote:
A wise purchase sir! I’d love to buy you a glass of the same. Perhaps you’d me me in Brooklyn and I can show you the bridge that I am offering for sale?
On June 25th, 2012 at 8:37 pm ,Kris Chislett wrote:
Hey, good for them! If people are willing to pay that kind of price, have at it!
On June 26th, 2012 at 1:38 pm ,Joe Buchter wrote:
good luck squeezing $2500 worth of satisfaction out of every single bottle. At about $100 per ounce, that shouldn’t be too hard…
On June 26th, 2012 at 1:52 pm ,Adam wrote:
…you have just contributed to the plague that affects so much of the goodness of wine enthusiasm! Don’t spill any:-)
On June 26th, 2012 at 7:52 pm ,gabe wrote:
my girlfriend saw this headline, and asked me why that bottle cost so much. the best answer i could come up with was, “some people like things that are expensive, and that makes them more expensive”.
at least there is a reason why vintage champagne or first-growth bordeaux are so expensive. this just seems idiotic to me.
On June 26th, 2012 at 10:41 pm ,Gerry Dawes wrote:
Very simple, have someone pay $13,000 for six bottles of this wine at “auction” and suddenly the price of the remainder of those bottles triples and bottles of the next vintage come out at $1,000 a bottle. Cult wines like this are like Hummel figurines. They have nothing to do with wine.
On June 27th, 2012 at 12:33 pm ,Samuel Gendron wrote:
1 btle of sauv bl from Screaming eagle ou 3-4 cases of Cotat, Vatan or Boulay… I’m not quite sure what i would choose…Hahahahahaha!!!!
On July 2nd, 2012 at 7:59 pm ,gabe wrote:
Hey Dr. V,
Did you read about this wine on vinography?
http://www.vinography.com/archives/2012/06/should_wineries_care_about_the.html
I might have to give credit to Screaming Eagle for being decent human beings after all
On July 2nd, 2012 at 9:18 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Gabe –
No, I read about it on wine-searcher, linked to it, and included the final price in my piece since theirs ran before the hammer fell.
As to Alder’s point that Kroenke et al. deserve praise for further reducing the availability of this wine, I beg to differ. Fewer bottles, ceteris paribus, would mean *higher* prices. $250 ex-cellars for a half barrel aged, partial malo, California SB planted in 2006 seems, as many have pointed out here, quite steep already. They might well use these few sales north of $2,000 to justify increasing the ex-cellar price further. If they want to combat fraud, they should call Laurent Ponsot for the latest technology and strategy.
On July 5th, 2012 at 8:54 pm ,gabe wrote:
Well, I can’t argue against $250 for a Napa Valley Sauv Blanc being ridiculous.
But it does seem like Screaming Eagle was a little embarrassed by the huge resale price, and the attention it received. That shows that they have something resembling humility.
I am curious how these cult wines got their cult status in the first place. Was it magazine scores? Supply and demand? I would love to read a blog post about that sometime…
As always, thanks for all the great content.
-Gabe