Napa Valley’s 2018s

2018 Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon

Rating: 100
Maturity: 2024-2056

Pure perfection in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Scarecrow’s 2018 reveals a dense purple hue as well as an incredible bouquet of pure crème de cassis, toasted spices, chocolate, darker currants, and graphite. This carries to a full-bodied, dense, off-the-charts sexy 2018 that has the vintage’s purity and freshness backed up by flawless balance, a layered mouthfeel, and building yet elegant tannins. This cuvée is hard to resist given its texture and wealth of fruit, but it will ideally be given 3-5 years and should evolve for 30 years or more.

2018 M. Étain Cabernet Sauvignon

Rating: 97
Maturity: 2024-2056

The 2018 M. Étain is another gem of a wine, and while it’s build as a second wine of Scarecrow, it has a style all its own. The 2018 is reminiscent of a great Saint-Julien, with its purity and elegance paired with textbook Cabernet notes of crème de cassis, crushed violets, earth, and liquid rock-like minerality. It’s just as gorgeous on the palate and has a full-bodied, seamless, ultra-pure texture, ripe yet present tannins, and a great finish. As with the Grand Vin, it offers pleasure today but is going to be better with 3-5 years of bottle age. You can’t go wrong with either of these releases from Scarecrow, and this is another brilliant release from winemaker Celia Welch.