Screaming Eagle: King of Cult Wines, a 10-year wait for a bottle of America's most expensive wine
There's a saying, "One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers." In the American wine scene, Opus One was already the king, yet then came the "king of cult wines." These two "kings" not only avoided confrontation but also became good friends. This week's weekend story is about the other "king" – Screaming Eagle Winery.
When you hear the name "Screaming Eagle," do you picture a majestic eagle soaring through the sky? In the United States, the name Screaming Eagle has an even more distinct meaning. "Screaming Eagle" is the nickname for the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, whose members wear arm patches embroidered with a screaming eagle. This unit played an extremely important role in the D-Day landings and is an ace division not to be overlooked in American history.
After completing her first independent winemaking attempt, the owner, Jean Phillips, took her wine to Mondavi Winery for a tasting. She received the comment, "This wine might be an eagle, or it might be nothing at all." Phillips then decided to name the winery "Screaming Eagle," because she only wanted to be that eagle!
Jean Phillips was originally a real estate agent. Perhaps driven by a keen professional instinct, Phillips followed the trend of buying vineyards at the time and purchased 57 acres of vineyards in Oakville in 1986. At that time, only 1 acre of the vineyard was planted with about 80 Cabernet Sauvignon vines, along with some white grape varieties.
Initially, Phillips sold all her grapes to nearby wineries. However, three years later, Phillips had the idea to try making wine herself. Fortunately, she had always personally taken care of the vineyard, so the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes there were fresh and excellent. In a rustic stone house, the legend of Screaming Eagle Winery officially began.
Due to the primitive winemaking conditions, only traditional rural methods were used, with purely manual pressing and fermentation. The grape juice was placed in plastic barrels and then aged in new oak barrels. Unexpectedly, this anxiously made wine, upon tasting, received praise from her friend Robert Mondavi. Phillips' determination to make her own wine was solidified from then on.
King of Cult Wines, Less is More
Bordeaux has its garage wines, and America has its cult wines. Starting in the 1980s, a group of small boutique wineries emerged in California, aiming to create top-tier wines. Their wines were highly acclaimed but produced in extremely limited quantities, usually only a few hundred cases annually, making them incredibly expensive. These are known as "cult wines."
Screaming Eagle Winery is the undisputed king among cult wines. Even Le Pin, the originator of garage wines, can produce 6,000 bottles annually, while Screaming Eagle Winery only produces fewer than 500 cases each year. All of this is deeply influenced by Phillips' "Less is more" philosophy.
After the successful tasting, Phillips, through Robert Mondavi's introduction, met Heidi Barrett, a renowned winemaker praised by Robert Parker as the "First Lady of Wine." These two ambitious women became a perfect partnership, infusing perfectionism into their winemaking.
Mimicking the techniques of French "garage wines," they meticulously selected the most mature and flawless grapes to produce their top-tier wines. In years when grape growth was not perfect, such as 2000, they simply opted not to produce any wine.
In 1995, Robert Parker awarded the 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon (the winery's inaugural vintage) a near-perfect 99 points, propelling Screaming Eagle Winery to instant fame. It is said that only 225 cases of the 1992 vintage were produced, making this wine a "treasure" coveted by all wine collectors.
Subsequently, Parker gave perfect scores to the 1997, 2007, 2010, and 2012 vintages of Screaming Eagle. This level of acclaim is something even top Bordeaux châteaux struggle to achieve. In 2000, a 6-liter bottle of 1992 Screaming Eagle was auctioned for $500,000, breaking the record for the highest-priced wine at the time and further solidifying Screaming Eagle's legendary status.
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