Second Flight - Screaming Eagle Introduces a Second Wine

Screaming Eagle has introduced a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc dubbed "Second Flight".  The 8 - bottle offering consists of 2 - bottles each vintage  '06, '07, '08, and '09.  The 8 - bottle lot is offered only to those  individuals lucky enough to be on the Screaming Eagle allocation list.  Interestingly, the offer does not describe these wines as being made from the fruit of either young vines, nor is this wine that was rejected for blending in the grand cuvee.  Rather, the winery states "For the last eight years, we’ve been making a different wine based on our top Merlot and Cabernet Franc lots."  If true, then Second Flight might be every bit as good as Screaming Eagle itself.  Bear in mind that the estate was sold in the spring of 2006, and the addition of additional labels might have been part of the buyer's plan.

The offer is priced at a hefty $1800, expect to pay $2000 when shipping and local sales taxes are included.  Final cost is $250/bottle.  Recognize that an auction house would need to sell this to someone else for slightly north of $300 (including 20% buyer's premium), for a speculator to break even.

Buy your entire allocation.  The Second Flight has no track record and only the Screaming Eagle brand to recommend it.  In this soft wine market, very few allocations make sense for wine investors or wine speculators, but Second Flight is one to buy.  Skeptics are invited to consider two other CA cult wines to have second offerings in recent years.  Scarecrow's M. Etain debuted at $125 before tax and shipping.  Most speculators would take a small loss re-selling that wine ($170 is currently the lowest retail price on wine-searcher).  Scarecrow admits that M. Etain is wine that didn't make it into the final blend.  However Sine Qua Non's Next of Kyn went from a $220 allocation price to a $575+ resale price.  Sine Qua Non was very clear in pointing out that Next of Kyn is a new wine made entirely from the Cumulus vineyard, and not the second offering of any of its existing labels.  There are no guarantees that any wine can be re-sold for a profit, but I would gladly take my chances with Second Flight.