In 1943, Joseph Judson Cohn, an MGM executive producer of films such as The Wizard of Oz acquired the 195-acre (79 ha) property of Rutherford land adjacent to Inglenook Winery founded by Gustave Niebaum.
[1][2] In 1990s, a vine pest Phylloxera led to most Napa vineyards being replanted, but the root stock at Scarecrow's fields survived.
[3] Cohn died in 1996 aged 100, and the heirs put the then 85-acre (34 ha) property up for sale to resolve the inheritance dispute, and a value estimation at $4 million in 1996 rose to $33.6 million by 2002,[2] when Francis Ford Coppola of the Rubicon Estate Winery eventually purchased the property in a package deal with Cohn's grandson Bret Lopez.
[6] SFGate said in 2008 that Scarecrow had a yearly output of around 400 cases, calling it a cult wine similar to the Screaming Eagle winery.
[7] At the February 2011 Premiere Napa Valley auction, a lot of five cases of Scarecrow Wine was sold for $125,000, breaking previous PNV records.