World's Greatest Wines to be sold as NFTs
Timed Online Auction, 19 June - 10 July 2023
World's Greatest Wines to be sold as NFTs
Screaming Eagle
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
About this Item
Strauss & Co Screaming Eagle 1995-2010 NFT
The highly coveted California Cabernet is one of the most collectible, sought-after, wines of the world, due to its high critic ratings and extremely limited production, ‘Cult’ status was quickly sealed. Notoriously difficult to secure a bottle due to the small production and exclusive DTC mailing list (with an incredibly long waiting list of more than a decade). Its maiden vintage production of only 225 cases available to purchase, saw prices skyrocket and demand increased rapidly.
Screaming Eagle is one of California’s top investment wines, which has seen sustained growth over the past decade, with a rising demand. As an investment or as a wine to simply take pleasure in, Screaming Eagle never fails to impress.
Screaming Eagle has been recognised by the greatest international wine critics for its extreme finesse since the release of its first vintage in 1992. The highly influential US wine critic, Robert Parker, scored the 1992 maiden vintage a whopping 99 out of 100 points, igniting overnight success for the young winery. Since then, the 1997 and 2007 vintages both achieved the coveted 100-point rating from Parker, the Napa Cabernet aficionado, held responsible for Screaming Eagle’s quick rise to fame! 2010 Sauvignon Blanc is the first vintage of the estate’s extremely rare Sauvignon Blanc. There are only two acres of this white wine grape on the Screaming Eagle estate — they made just 200 bottles in 2010!
The Screaming Eagle lot consists of 19 bottles of extremely rare, highly acclaimed vintages from 1995 through to 2010.
1 x 1500ml
17 x 750ml
1 x 750ml Sauvignon Blanc 2010 – maiden vintage
Click here to view the NFT list for this lot.
Click HERE to view the NFT list for this lot.
- The wines are currently stored in the professional cellars of Wine Cellar, in Cape Town, Africa’s largest fine wine cellar. Free storage to October 2023.
- Professional world-wide shipping can also be arranged, at negligible costs considering the high value of the wines.
- Each bottle within the NFT is also minted as an NFT on the polygon blockchain. This allows for the withdrawal or trading of single bottles, or the entire NFT at any time. Strauss & Co will coordinate the ‘burning’ NFTs when stock is withdrawn.
- Insurance to be undertaken by new owner.
- All Web3 development is undertaken by partner Fanfire. Prof Gert-Jan van Rooyen is Director at Fanfire, and also an Associate Professor Extra-Ordinary in Industrial Engineering at Stellenbosch University.
- Payment can be made in ZAR, USD, GBP and using any of the methods Strauss & Co accepts (cash, credit card, EFT) or optionally with cryptocurrency.
Fanfire will facilitate payments made in ETH or BTC and stable coins. - SASA (South African Sommeliers Association is a non-profit organization and aims to offer its services to service industry professionals in South Africa. SASA will receive 1% of the hammer price from Strauss proceeds.
Why NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens are a highly efficient way to package a collection of wines for long term aging or trading. The digital contract is stored on the Polygon blockchain and the NFT includes the critical information of the transaction in provenance, barcode, pictures, pricing, along with sensorial and aging information. NFT transactions are cheap and fast, and don’t add any marginal energy cost. The NFTs can be traded by the owner on any platform, currently also on Opeansea.
The NFTs include perfect complimentary cellaring of the wines in professional storage with Wine Cellar until October 2023, with the option to extend at commercial rates thereafter. Contracts are held in a custodial wallet or sent to a cold wallet such as the Venox Vault.
Provenance
The Coats Family Cellar is arguably the most prestigious fine wine collection ever offered in South Africa. It contains an expansive collection of the worlds finest, most sought-after wines, spanning over 150 years. Collected over many decades, the cellar was imported from Ireland to South Africa via refrigerated container. Each bottle within the Coats Family Cellar was authenticated by Michael Egan in August 2022 and given an ID number for tracking.
Michael Egan is a world-expert in fine and rare wines with more than thirty five years of experience. He was the principal expert for the plaintiff in the two major wine counterfeiting trials in Koch v. Eric Greenberg and United States v. Rudy Kurniawan, both of which occurred in 2013.
Along with Michael Egan, the Strauss & Co Fine Wine team have tasted extensively through the cellar and are confident of the wine storage and hence quality. The entire collection is currently stored at Wine Cellar.
Critics Ratings
Robert Parker
'As I have tried so hard to articulate in past reviews, what makes these wines so stunning is the black currant/cassis fruit. Screaming Eagle may be the most extravagantly pure and rich expression of cassis one can find ... short of drinking cassis liqueur. There is an unbelievable purity to these wines, as well as phenomenal concentration and richness, yet in no sense are they heavy, ponderous, or out of balance.’ – Robert Parker
2010 Screaming Eagle is described as ‘utter perfection’ by Parker.
Noah May – head of sales - Wines and Spirits
‘The wine’s upward trajectory has remained constant ever since. With multiple perfect or near perfect ratings from various influential reviewers, her diminutive property secured a reputation for producing legendary, almost mythical wine, the unicorn of which is widely regarded to be the 1992.’
Other lots that might interest you
