- CRITICAL REVIEWS
- WINEMAKER NOTES
JD
98
Jeb Dunnuck
(Rating 98+)
A primordial baby of a wine, the 2016 Screaming Eagle includes slightly more Cabernet Sauvignon than the 2015 and is 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, and 8% Cabernet Franc. About as elegant and classy as it gets, this brilliant wine offers loads of blueberries, crème de cassis, crushed violets, spice, and a distinct minerality that emerges with time in the glass. Perfectly balanced, incredibly elegant, with great intensity and length, it will most likely merit a triple-digit score in 4-5 years and it will keep for 3-4 decades. While it's easy to think all cult California Cabs are rich, monster wines, the reality is far from it, and this estate continues to produce wines in a balanced, elegant, classic, iconic style that is unquestionably up with the greatest wines on earth. Reviewed by Jeb Dunnuck, January 2019. Drinking window: 2023-2058.
RP
100
Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2016 Screaming Eagle is, as usual, mainly Cabernet Sauvignon with a little Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple colored, it leaps from the glass with bright, exuberant blackberries, kirsch and warm blackcurrants scents plus touches of lavender, roses, tilled black loam, wild sage and dark chocolate with wafts of yeast extract, underbrush and crushed rocks. Medium to full-bodied, firm and fine grained, with amazing freshness, it is layered with crunchy black and red fruits, sparked by floral and mineral notions and finishing with epic length and depth. Reviewed by Lisa Perrotti-Brown, May 2019. Drinking window: 2022-2065.
V
100
Vinous
The 2016 Screaming Eagle is a positively stunning wine. An intense bouquet
gives way to a wine of explosive energy and huge textural depth. Graphite,
crushed rocks, menthol, sage and dark spice open up gradually in this
reticent, brooding Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2016 is a towering,
statuesque wine of the very highest level. That is the good news. The slightly
less good news is that it will need a number of years in bottle to be at its
very best. I wouldn't dream of touching a bottle anytime soon. The 2016
literally does scream, with tons of varietal Cabernet aromatics, flavors and
structural drive. In a word: magnificent~ Reviewed by Antonio Galloni, October 2018. Drinking window: 2026-2046.
2016 Screaming Eagles California's most coveted Cult Wine.
Screaming Eagle Winery is a California wine estate producing limited amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon wine. Considered the penultimate cult wine, these command the highest prices for American wine. The winery is located in Oakville, California, in the Napa Valley.