USA · Napa Valley

Screaming Eagle

Screaming Eagle is the most financially significant wine produced in California, a 23-acre Oakville estate whose Cabernet Sauvignon commands prices that place it alongside Pétrus and DRC in the global ultra-premium auction market. The estate was purchased as a horse property in 1986 by Jean Phillips, a local real estate agent with no winemaking background, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon and produced the first commercial vintage in 1992. That 1992 inaugural vintage sold for $500,000 per bottle at a charity auction — an extreme outlier, but symptomatic of the extraordinary demand the wine has generated since. Phillips sold Screaming Eagle to a consortium including Stan Kroenke (Colorado Rockies, Arsenal FC owner) in 2006 for a reported $35 million — at the time the highest price ever paid for a California wine estate. Viticulturist Andy Peay and winemaker Nick Gislason have managed the estate since, with Heidi Peterson Barrett having served as the founding winemaker from 1992 to 2006. Production averages 400–500 six-bottle cases per year — approximately 3,000 bottles — making it among the most genuinely scarce wines with broad collector demand in the world. The allocation list is by invitation only and maintained by a small mailing list; many collectors wait 15–20 years for an allocation. This creates a robust and consistently rising secondary market where the most recent vintages (typically available only on release at $750/bottle from the estate) trade at auction for $1,500–$4,000.