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Kroenke co-owns California cult winery

Screaming Eagle's wine can cost $500 a bottle

By Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 2, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Kroenke owns a winery with an investment manager.

Kroenke owns a winery with an investment manager.

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What do Colorado and the coveted Napa Valley winery Screaming Eagle have in common?

Stan Kroenke.

The billionaire owner of the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche co-owns the tiny cult winery and another California winery that's drawing great reviews.

Screaming Eagle's Cabernet Sauvignon is legendary among wine lovers. Its limited bottles are doled out a few at a time to a small group of loyal customers lucky enough to be on a mailing list.

They hand over $500 a bottle - a relative bargain considering the bottles can fetch more than $2,000 each at an auction.

A retired Silicon Valley executive once forked over $500,000 for a 6-liter bottle of the first vintage of Screaming Eagle at the 2000 Napa Valley Wine Auction.

Kroenke owns Screaming Eagle with California investment manager Charles Banks, who manages money for NBA players and other athletes. They bought the property in 2006 for an estimated $30 million to $40 million.

Kroenke and Banks also own Jonata, an 80-acre estate in California's Santa Ynez Valley. The first bottles recently were released.

Wine critic Robert Parker wrote that Jonata is "building a remarkable portfolio" that will "make the wine world take notice." The bottles sell for less than Screaming Eagle - but still cost more than $100.

Kroenke, who also owns the Colorado Rapids soccer team, has been known to give a bottle of wine as a sign of appreciation.

Just ask the commissioner of Major League Soccer, Don Garber. After Kroenke bought Screaming Eagle last year, Garber asked Kroenke if he could get on the mailing list.

"Being the complete gentleman that he is, he very politely told me that no, I could not," Garber recently told Wine Spectator magazine's Web site.

"However, I later helped him secure the naming rights to his new soccer stadium for the Rapids, and he gave me a bottle of Screaming Eagle as a thank-you gift.

fillionr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2467