Tasting Notes
Vinous 92
Good ruby-red. Cassis, blackberry, licorice, bitter chocolate and a pungent mineral component on the vibrant nose. Denser than the estate’s second wine, showing an attractively fine-grained texture but not quite the depth or sweetness of a top year here. I find this youthfully closed today, with the wine’s broad tannins in need of at least a few years of patience.
Robert Parker 92
A notable success in an extremely irregular vintage (even more so for Napa’s valley floor vineyards), the 2011 Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon possesses a deep ruby/plum/purple color, and a slightly lighter weight and less of a serious foundation of structure than the 2010. However, the wine’s purity and hints of kirsch, black currants, berry fruit and toasty oak are well-displayed and well-integrated into this seamlessly constructed effort. It is on a relatively fast evolutionary track so drink it over the next 10-15 years. These have been enviable wines since I first started tasting them thanks primarily to Celia Welch, the consulting winemaker at this historic estate in Rutherford. They have added a quasi-second wine called M. Etain, which is brilliantly packaged. Of course, it is what’s in the bottle that really counts. Tel. (707) 963-3361
Anticipated maturity: 2013-2028
