Scarecrow

The J.J. Cohn Estate in Rutherford borders what was once the vineyard of Inglenook's Gustave Niebaum. Joseph Judson Cohn, born in Harlem in 1895, began his studio career as a bookkeeper and rose to become Chief of Production at MGM, and was instrumental in the making of Ben Hur, Gigi, Mutiny on the Bounty and The Wizard of Oz. Cohn purchased 180 acres in Rutherford in 1943. John Daniel Jr. took the helm at Inglenook in 1939, and in 1945 he convinced Cohn to plant eighty acres of Cabernet on the parcel, promising to buy the grapes. The property served as a summer retreat for Cohn's family. J.J. Cohn fruit went into Inglenook's post-war Cabernet Sauvignons and later into Opus One, Niebaum-Coppola, Duckhorn, Insignia and Etude.

• The Scarecrow label pays tribute to the Scarecrow character from The Wizard of Oz and honors the late J.J. Cohn.
• Cohn kept his vines on St. George rootstock rather than following the mid-1960s trend of replanting to a hybrid rootstock that later proved highly vulnerable to phylloxera.
• The estate says only the original 1945 J.J. Cohn vines survived, and calls these Old Men the hallmark of Scarecrow wine.

Bret Lopez, J.J. Cohn's grandson, purchased the Rutherford property from his family in 2002, and he and his partner Mimi DeBlasio set out to make a wine that would live up to the reputation of its old vines. Lopez, born in Los Angeles in 1948, built a career as a professional photographer; he met DeBlasio in 1986, and the two worked together professionally until 1998. DeBlasio, born in Minneapolis in 1948, is the estate's co-founder. Celia Welch is Director of Winemaking, Domenick Bianco is vineyard manager and Lisa Pavageau is Chief Operating Officer. Bianco acquired the vineyard management business of his mentor, viticulturist Michael Wolf, and succeeded him in 2024. Designer Michael Vanderbyl created Scarecrow's packaging and website.

• Owner: Bret Lopez. Co-founder: Mimi DeBlasio.
• Celia Welch earned a B.S. in Fermentation Science from the University of California at Davis in 1982 and has consulted full time since 1995.
• Lisa Pavageau has been with Scarecrow since the inaugural release of the 2003 vintage.
• Lopez and DeBlasio moved to the property full time in 2002.

The Scarecrow property is planted to 25 acres, of which 2 acres are the remaining footprint of the original 1945 Cabernet Sauvignon plantings. Lopez nicknamed these moss-covered vines the Old Men. Diseased vines have been pulled out of that block over the decades, with newer vines interplanted among the originals. The estate also grows Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot, plus a larger block of Cabernet Sauvignon grown from original budwood from the healthiest of the Old Men. All the vines are dry farmed. Wine Spectator's James Laube wrote that the old vines date to the 1940s, which are ancient by Cabernet standards.

• Planted area: 25 acres.
• Original 1945 Cabernet Sauvignon: 2 acres, on St. George rootstock.
• Other varieties: Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.
• All vines are dry farmed.

Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon has the Old Men vines as its backbone. Each year lots are tasted blind and narrowed down until one wine is chosen as Scarecrow; the 2013 Scarecrow was aged for 22 months in 100% new French oak barrels. M. Étain began during the blending of the 2008 Scarecrow vintage, when the portion of juice not included in the final Scarecrow blend was bottled on its own. It blends Cabernet with Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot, all from the J.J. Cohn Estate, and the estate describes it as more Bordeaux-style, layered and bright. In French, the name refers to Mr. Tin, another Wizard of Oz character. Toto's Opium Dream, released in 2023, is made from a single barrel of what Celia Welch judged the highest quality fruit in the vineyard; for the 2016 vintage that was a 200-bottle lot made exclusively from the Old Men.

• Scarecrow: Cabernet Sauvignon with the 1945 Old Men block as its backbone.
• M. Étain: first made from the 2008 vintage; Cabernet with Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.
• Toto's Opium Dream: single-barrel wine released in 2023; the 2016 was a 200-bottle lot.
• Release: Scarecrow by invitation each spring after a roughly 3-year wait; M. Étain to the entire mailing list each fall.

Robert Parker rated the 2003 Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon 98 points, and by the end of that day more than 6,000 people had signed up for the Scarecrow mailing list. The top lot at the 2014 Premiere Napa Valley auction, 5 cases of 2012 Scarecrow Cabernet, sold for $260,000. Wine Spectator's October 15, 2024 list of the top 100 vineyards on the planet included only two from the U.S., To Kalon and J.J. Cohn.

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://www.scarecrowwine.com/our-story/, https://www.scarecrowwine.com/our-wine/, https://www.scarecrowwine.com/our-people/, https://www.scarecrowwine.com/our-people/co-founder/, https://www.scarecrowwine.com/our-people/winemaker/, https://www.scarecrowwine.com/our-people/vineyard-manager/, https://www.scarecrowwine.com/our-people/visual-design/, https://www.scarecrowwine.com/our-people/chief-operating-officer/. Secondary sources: The Napa Wine Project (https://www.napawineproject.com/scarecrow-wine/), Wine Spectator (https://www.winespectator.com/articles/big-gains-for-napa-valley-vintners-at-premiere-napa-valley-49638), Wine Spectator (https://www.winespectator.com/articles/tasting-the-2005-scarecrow-but-beware-the-ghost-15397). Last verified 2026-10-12. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.