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94 By Robert Parker
88 By Wine Spectator
This is one of the finest Opus Ones to date, offering a dark ruby/purple color, as well as a striking, intense bouquet of sweet licorice intermixed with blackberries, cassis, plums, and saddle leather. This seamless, full-bodied wine is more velvety-textured, opulent, and succulent than past vintages. The mid-palate is expansive and chewy. The long finish is filled with glycerin, ripe fruit, and sweet tannin. Drink this impressive, user-friendly yet richly concentrated effort over the next 15 years.
Producer
Opus One Winery
Unarguably the most well-known European wine families, the Rothschilds, paired up with one of the great New World wine pioneers, Mondavi, to create this legendary Californian estate. What started as a joint venture between the two, Robert Mondavi of Napa Valley and Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Bordeaux’s Château Mouton Rothschild back in 1978, the Opus One Estate is now one of California’s most high-profile wineries. They released their first vintage, the 1979, in 1981, at a then astonishing price of fifty dollars a bottle. When the Cabernet blend was released, it was originally named Napamedoc, but in 1982, they began to label it under Opus One - accentuating the bond between the old and new world. A blend of all five Bordeaux varieties, the icon wine consists of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot. This flagship wine, along with the duo’s innovative vision, has made the Opus One Estate Napa Valley’s leading cult-winery.