Has anyone tried the scarecrow 2016? A friend gifted me this bottle and I looked it up and almost choked at the price. Is it best to be enjoyed now or should I sit on it for a couple more years?
by wmayer88
Has anyone tried the scarecrow 2016? A friend gifted me this bottle and I looked it up and almost choked at the price. Is it best to be enjoyed now or should I sit on it for a couple more years?
by wmayer88
11 Comments
The hell are these friends you have?
You could definitely drink it now or sit on it. I opened one in May and it was awesome. But you could sit on it another 10 if you wanted to. I’ve been a member since the 2013 vintage and I think the 10-12 year mark is perfect for getting the age and the fruit, but that’s my personal preference. The most important thing is to have it with a great meal and enjoy.
Decant for 3+ hours and/or hold for as long as possible. This wine is huge and needs to soften up quite a bit. I think its drinking window would be like 2030 to 2040 if stored properly. If you dont have a wine fridge or cellar it would be better to drink young just so you dont accidentally kill it. Drink it with food, red meat would be recommended.
I suggest waiting a decade… but if you wanna open, gotta let it decant for a while.
It will get better over time, but will also be enjoyable with a few hours of air before drinking. I had the 2014 recently and it needed a few hours.
If you have proper storage, sit on it. Better yet, forget about it. It’ll be ready for you sometime a long time from now.
I think it’s drinking surprisingly well at the moment with a good decant. Not shy at all to my tastes. I guess it depends on where you like the wine in the aging process. Yes, it will be outstanding in 10 years. But it is damn delicious right now IMO.
If you have proper storage, sit on it for at least a decade and a half minimum.
If not, call your friend over to kill the bottle with some bone in steaks
Get a wine fridge.
Open it now FOR SURE if you’re not already a huge wine geek. It could age yes, but it’s not an exact science at all and if you’re not used to much older wine, it’s not even remotely as much of a guarantee that you’ll enjoy it more with the extra time. Aging wine changes wine, but not always for the better. With 10 years this will absolutely positively be ready to go. You can decant it but I promise it’s not absolutely necessary – just follow it very slowly in bottle.
Pick a night when you wanna have steak or some other kind of rich, meaty, non-spicy dinner. Pop it open before cooking or eating any food and try it completely on its own. Then very slowly sip it with the steak out of the biggest wine glasses you have. Would love to hear what you think. Don’t think about the price while drinking. If you’d like, you can sort of calibrate your palate by enjoying a couple less pricey Napa Cabs first. Check out Chappellet, Forman, Keenan, Heitz, Paul Hobbs, and Mt. Brave for example. Avoid 2020 and 2022 Napa for the most part. Keep us updated!
The wines huge, but it’s well made. Cult Napa should be sat on for twenty years to be honest. If you drink it young it will still be enjoyable, but a $200 bottle of young napa tastes like a $50 bottle of young Napa and a $500 bottle of young Napa