Wine Advocate – 2023 Scarecrow M. Étain

2023 Scarecrow M. Étain Cabernet Sauvignon

Rating: 96
Drink Date: 2027 – 2040

Scarecrow’s 2023 M. Étain is a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% each Malbec and Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, drawn from the same 25-acre Rutherford vineyard as its big brother. The small proportions of blending varieties give it a more floral nose than the straight-Cabernet Scarecrow, with those elements joining bay leaves and ripe cherries on the nose. In the mouth, the wine is medium- to full-bodied, creamy and supple up front, then more tannic and velvety-textured on the lingering, dark chocolate-tinged finish.

Scarecrow features some of the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines in Napa Valley and a beautiful historic home tucked against the backdrop of the Mayacamas in western Rutherford. Today, the property is owned by Bret Lopez, grandson of movie executive J.J. Cohn, who originally purchased the acreage as a summer retreat for his family. The oldest existing vines were planted at the request of neighbor John Daniels (Inglenook) in 1945, who guaranteed Cohn he would purchase the fruit. All of the fruit was sold through the 2002 vintage, with the first Scarecrow coming from 2003.

In all, there are 25 to 30 lots each year off the 25-acre vineyard. There are about 400 of the original 1945 vines remaining, and longtime winemaker Celia Welch tastes their fruit and marks them for harvest individually during the harvest. “Some can look OK but still not taste good,” she said. “Dry farming has led to greater intensity and amplification of vintage differences.”

There’s no winery at the property-nor is there really room for one. Instead, the wine is made by Welch at Laird, where Scarecrow owns their own dedicated tanks with an automated pump-over system-sort of a private winery within a custom crush facility. The grapes get 48 hours in tank before inoculation with a Champagne-selection yeast. Welch allows fermentation temperatures to rise to the mid to high 80s for the first five or six days, then maintains cooler temperatures for the rest of the time in tank. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel, followed by a first racking in February or March after the vintage. There’s a second racking once the core blend has been made and a third prior to being bottled unfiltered.

Welch, who concluded her 43rd harvest in 2025, described the 2023 vintage as “the antithesis of 2022. Weather conditions were akin to something we saw prior to 1991,” she said. “It’s our job to respect that and capture the vibrance of a really lovely cooler season.”

Scarecrow itself is always 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the base of the blend coming from the old vines. M. Étain generally incorporates younger vines and some more-recently planted Bordeaux varieties; the latest version comes in at 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% each Malbec and Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. Both are huge successes.