In today's SF Chronicle(05/30/08), their wine section covered Cult Wines. It is an excellent read if you get a chance. They covered the big cult wines a little such as Screaming Eagle, Harlan and Colgin. But they also covered the top upcoming 6 new cult wines coming up.

Scarecrow and Ovid are potentially the next Screaming Eagle wineries. Scarecrow had an overnight success with the 98 point rating for their first vintage, and there is a long waiting list to get in. I signed up for Scarecrow the day I got my Wine Advocate with that 98 point review, so I am in the better part of the waiting list for that one.

Ovid, even before they sent out their first ever mailer had a long waiting list formed. Andy Erickson the Screaming Eagle winemaker is also the winemaker for Ovid, and like Screaming Eagle, Michele Rolland is also consultant along with David Abreu as vineyard manager. So it is pretty easy to see why this one formed a big waiting list before they even sent out their first mailer. There are under 400 cases produced. There are no reviews yet for this wine, except James Laube gave some people a tease by absolutely raving about this wine from a barrel tasting!! I was lucky enough to find about about Ovid over a year ago and got on their mailing list before many others caught on here. I already got my limit of 3 bottles of ordered.

Scholium Project is another promising cult wine, as well as Aubert, Sloan and Drinkward Peschon.

Sloan, I passed on their last offering, sure it got a great rating, but when they jacked the price up from $240 to $325 a bottle I said forget it.

If any of you get a chance to get the Friday Chronicle, get it, it gave an excellent history of the cult wine craze to where it is at not, and its up and coming stars!

I'm hoping that not too many people jump on the Drinkward Peschon band wagon. I like it under the radar.

quote:

Originally posted by tanglenet:
I'm hoping that not too many people jump on the Drinkward Peschon band wagon. I like it under the radar.

Well, I think those days of being under the radar are over now that the SF Chronicle covered it. When they covered Drinkward Peschon, I found it interesting, but I am already with Ovid.

Just out of curiosity, is the Drinkward Peschon more new world or old world in their wine making style?

I'll make the same post about this that I did just a few minutes ago on VinoCellar:

I'm not even going to bother to click the link. If I hear one more time about the next cult or the vintage of the century I think I'll puke.

I’m sorry to say that you are just another wine junkie caught up in the cache of owning or wanting to own hard to get wines. How absurd is it to be giddy about still waiting to move up the Screaming Eagle list, yet you have disdain for Sloan who increased their price to what - less than half the price of Screagle? I couldn’t care less about a cult wine. I would much rather hear you talk ad nauseam (which you have) about the few Napa/Sonoma wines that age well, as this is a much better road to take.

quote:

Originally posted by GreenDrazi:
I’m sorry to say that you are just another wine junkie caught up in the cache of owning or wanting to own hard to get wines. How absurd is it to be giddy about still waiting to move up the Screaming Eagle list, yet you have disdain for Sloan who increased their price to what - less than half the price of Screagle? I couldn’t care less about a cult wine. I would much rather hear you talk ad nauseam (which you have) about the few Napa/Sonoma wines that age well, as this is a much better road to take.

Actually, while I did get on Screaming Eagle's waiting list awhile ago, their pricing is way to out of my price range. By the time they send me a mailer, my guess is it will be over $1,000 a bottle. Forget it.

Ovid while high at $175 a bottle, I figure why not get in on a few of their vintages before they price themselves out of what I will pay for a wine. For all I know, this might be my only time purchase of Ovid. Should they jack the price up like Sloan did, I will drop them too. But hey, I lucked out and got in on a cult wines first vintage, my guess is I will get 2 vintages worth before they price themself out of my range.

quote:

Originally posted by GreenDrazi:
I’m sorry to say that you are just another wine junkie caught up in the cache of owning or wanting to own hard to get wines. How absurd is it to be giddy about still waiting to move up the Screaming Eagle list, yet you have disdain for Sloan who increased their price to what - less than half the price of Screagle? I couldn’t care less about a cult wine. I would much rather hear you talk ad nauseam (which you have) about the few Napa/Sonoma wines that age well, as this is a much better road to take.

Crap...we agree

PSF, you are just a cult whore

quote:

Originally posted by Chilepepper:

quote:

Originally posted by GreenDrazi:
I’m sorry to say that you are just another wine junkie caught up in the cache of owning or wanting to own hard to get wines. How absurd is it to be giddy about still waiting to move up the Screaming Eagle list, yet you have disdain for Sloan who increased their price to what - less than half the price of Screagle? I couldn’t care less about a cult wine. I would much rather hear you talk ad nauseam (which you have) about the few Napa/Sonoma wines that age well, as this is a much better road to take.

Crap...we agree

PSF, you are just a cult whore

LOL! I guess I am to a degree. Right now I am trying to find the up and coming cults and get in on their first vintage or two before Robert Parker 95+ ratings send their prices through the roof.

Good read. Here's the link to the main article for the Google lazy/illiterate: Clicky.

What, no Ghost Horse???

I don't take more than a pedestrian approach to the Cult speculation, but it is fascinating to read about. At this point, I'd rather gamble on the stock market.

quote:

Originally posted by PetiteSyrahFan:
Right now I am trying to find the up and coming cults and get in on their first vintage or two before Robert Parker 95+ ratings send their prices through the roof.

If all you are concerned about is high RP scores, then buy (The Todd) Anderson's Conn Valley Cab for $50 with a 95 score and be done with it. But that wine doesn't have the tried and true cult formula of having a star winemaker/consultant and vineyard manager with a production of 500 cases or less. Hence it can't be flipped for $500+/btl, which is the real reason most are on the waiting list.

We did a flight of 4 '96 cults at a recent OL. All were good, though a couple overripe. My favorite (but not the group's) was the Abreu, which resembled a typical SCM Cab that you can get for a tenth the price. Go figure.

quote:

Originally posted by tanglenet:
I'm hoping that not too many people jump on the Drinkward Peschon band wagon. I like it under the radar.

I have only tried one vintage but I did not see the big deal about Drinkward Peschon.

I am wondering if anyone has become a cult without Robert Parkers help. I would like to see a wine that creates huge demand based on the taste, not the list, prestige, price, and Parker score.

How many "cult cabs" are we up to nowaday?

35? 40?.....