Description
Screaming Eagle History, Overview
If any wine exemplifies the California Cult wine phenomena, it’s Screaming Eagle, which made its auspicious debut with their 1992 vintage. Within two short years, the wine quickly shot to the top of the hot, must have collectible charts. In fact, the current price for the 1992 Screaming Eagle has soared to over $7,000! That’s per bottle, not per case!
Screaming Eagle was purchased by the original owner and founder, Jean Phillips in 1986. Jean Phillips was a popular and successful realtor in the Napa valley. Jean Philips is responsible for helping many of the newer top wineries sell to their current owners.
Knowing where the best soils were, Jean Philips began acquiring land for Screaming Eagle in 1986 one small parcel at a time. For the first few years, the fruit was sold to various, local Napa wineries.
In part, it was on the advice of Robert Mondavi that Jean Philips move from grower to wine maker as the wines made from that parcel of vines were special. Jean Phillips hired Heidi Barrett, (Wife of Bo Barrett from Montelena) as her first winemaker. The debut vintage of Screaming Eagle was produced from the 1992 harvest.
Here’s something most people don’t know. For the first Screaming Eagle vintage, part of the harvest was aged in a special barrel, with an engraved top. For good luck, that same barrel has been reused for each subsequent vintage of Screaming Eagle ever since. And yes, the new owners proudly carry on that tradition.
Jean Phillips sold the winery in 2006 to Charles Banks and Stan Kroenke for a sum rumored to be in the neighborhood of 30 million dollars. Although rumors said the sum was actually a lot more money. At that time, Andy Erickson was the winemaker and David Abreu managed the vineyards.
The initial purchase was for a total of 57 acres. One of the first decisions the new owners made was to replant a large portion of their vineyards. The replanted close to 70% of their entire vineyard! This proved to be a shrewd move for numerous reasons.
Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/california-wine/screaming-eagle-california-wine-cabernet-sauvignon/
Visit Us
