The Top 10 California Wines to Collect Right Now

THE TOP 10 CALIFORNIA WINES TO COLLECT

#7, Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation: Rutherford
First Vintage: 2003
Current Release: 2021 ($600/bottle, 1,600 cases)
Current Winemaker: Celia Welch
Average Recent Market Bottle Prices: $13,200 (2007), $8,000 (2008), $7,980 (2011)
Average Ten-Year Appreciation: 122%

MGM Chief of Production J.J. Cohn, who had been instrumental in making The Wizard of Oz, wasn’t a wine person. But in 1945, his neighbor, winemaker John Daniel Jr. of Inglenook, convinced him to plant 80 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon vines on the Inglenook property, on the west side of the famed Rutherford appellation of Napa Valley.

For decades, the Scarecrow estate supplied grapes for classic Cabernets from Inglenook, Niebaum-Coppola, Opus One and Joseph Phelps Insignia—other wines that garnered sky-high praise and prices. But when Cohn’s grandson, photographer Bret Lopez, who was into wine, inherited his grandfather’s home and vineyard in the early 2000’s, he went on to make his own highly lauded wines.

These vines are still some of the oldest in all of North America. The name “Scarecrow?” A nod to his grandfather’s iconic film.