![]() ![]() With its rich history and legendary status, Opus One is truly a bucket-list wine for any serious collector or enthusiast. The wine has consistently received high scores from the world's leading critics, and its 2004 vintage was named Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year. The wine is aged for 18 months in new French oak barrels beore being released for sale.Įach year, Opus One releases a limited number of bottles – just over 6,000 cases in 2015 – making it one of the most coveted wines on the market. Founded in 1979 by Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Opus One produces a single wine each vintage – a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. Thanks for the scores Andy! Interesting to see how high 2001 is.Opus One, located in Oakville, California, is one of the world's most celebrated wineries. Bizarrely there’s something more Margaux than Mouton about this. The alcohol sits completely within the framework of the wine and the finish is both lifted and pure. There’s the freshness of a cooler year allied to impressive ripeness of fruit and a finely-spun texture. On the palate this is absolutely seamless - the fruit is sweet, but precise, and well defined and the tannins are beautifully sculpted. Lots of nuance and complexity and it keeps evolving and changing in the glass. The aromas are decidedly ‘cool’ with floral elements, sweet French oak and fresh tobacco alongside intense blackcurrant. RE the 2016, I had a sample sent to me at home last year:Ī wine of striking finesse and elegant proportions. In terms of older vintages, I’m a big fan of 1991, 19. Recent vintages have been delicious - isn’t Michael Silacci still making it? - plus it’s accessible in terms of being able to buy it, whereas many top CA wines are not for us Europeans, and (wearing my ITB hat) it’s priced at a level that makes it commercially very successful. I reckon Opus is pretty successful all round. Jane Anson, Sept 2019: Decanter – 19 Sep 19 The 97/99 are still a bit on the younger side.Ĭheck out more recent Cellartracker scores for these vintages to see that the hype is real here:īest Opus according to Cellartracker in the past 2 years:Īnother hint at the greatness of these wines comes from two vertical tastings Jane Anson of Decanter (in my eyes, one of the most reliable critics) and La Revue Vins France: I would go for the the 96, 91, 94, 95 vintages (in that order) as these vintages are ready and full of tertiary aromatics. I just hope that the more recent vintages will age like those from the 90s and before. I’ve had the 1994, 1996, 1997 several times over the past 24 months and put it into several blind tastings and it always delivered great results and very high scores and even though it’s a tad sweeter it was often confused with a great aged Bordeaux from a riper vintage. If one was to try a somewhat older vintage of it as I prefer some age on my cab, what vintage do you guys suggest? Thanks! I know Opus One gets a bad rap, but I still want to try it given that I really love Mondavi Reserves and generally enjoy California Cabs. However I do find myself buying Dujac for similar magnitudes. I have a few Opus tucked away, older, waiting for a day. RE: Burgundy, people go monkey shit me included to be honest. If you love it, you will seek it out and buy it. I’ll just add that QPR is in the eye of the beholder. Hard to find any under $300 currently, but I’ll have to continue looking! ![]() I think it has to do more with QPR and current prices. I may have been unfair calling it getting a bad rap. Last one I had was before their involvement, which I believe was somewhere around 2005. It’s gone through some changes and I’m not sure who’s making it since Constellation got involved. At the time it was around $100, which was high, but didn’t make it particularly out of line, since a lot of other wines were hitting that price. And I admit, I was one.īut then I tried it one day and thought it was actually pretty decent stuff. Then a lot of wines came out that were every bit as good and not as expensive. It was a big loud project initially, and it was a costly wine for the time. Mike - I don’t know that it really gets a bad rap, but it is a confusing wine. ![]()
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