Opus One

Not that Opus One needs any more referrals... especially mine.
But here are my humble thoughts.










It's a romantic story and backed by a pretty solid product.
Yes, it's pricey, but you are getting quite an amazing juice.

A while back, I was able to take a tour of the Opus One winery and was very impressed with their operation.
I like to break down wineries and breweries into 2 basic classifications.
Whether they are "(Old World) Art" based, or "(Modern Day) Science" based.

Opus One is definitely "Science".
Modern science to be exact.










At their plant, they had giant steel barrel fermentation tanks, motor run conveyor belts and computerized hydrolics and centralized temperature / pressurized systems.
In other words, it looked like the engine room of the Millennium Falcon.
Quite impressive actually.

Here's the 2 minute historical synopsis of the winery:
Back in the day, Robert Mondavi was a neophyte in the world of Wine Making.
This was during the early years of Napa valley where there were less than 20 wineries and Californian wine was considered no better than Welch's grapejuice.
Now, it's world class and there are over 250 wineries taking up 45,000 acres of land and it seems to keep on growing day by day.

Decades ago and by sheer chance, Mr. Mondavi (or as some like to call him Bob) ran into Baron Phillipe Rothchild during one of his visits to the states.
Baron Phillip Rothchild is the proprietor of Chateau Mouton Rothchild - a very big guy in the world of top wine makers. (Kinda like what Tiger Woods is to Golf)
The Baron took a liking to "Bob" and for 8 years, they corresponded back and forth on a project to make a world class wine in Napa, California.

When it was finally agreed upon and a collaboration was signed, Baron Phillipe sent over one of his trusted wine makers from Bordeaux to California and the pain staking work went underway.
Planting the vines, calculating the soil's richness (or lack of), working out the layout of the vines due to the sun, studying the wind patterns of the land, the moisture levels in the air and in the soil, the smell of the air, the morning, noon and evening conditions of the land, the seasons (or lack of)... everything that made up the magical concept of Terroir.

Slowly but surely, a quality juice was produced and today, they cap off production at 240,000 bottles a year.

Just to put this into perspective, on how boutique Opus One is....
Gallo Wines produces 75 million cases, to Opus One's 20,000 cases a year.

Over the years, the Mondavi family has spread their name pretty thin with projects all over the world. So about 3 years ago, Opus One was taken over and is solely controlled by the Rothchild family of Bordeaux, France.

Cheers to that, and if you find yourself going to Napa anytime soon, book the tour in advance and take part in what many believe is the pioneer in Californian Wines.