Ride Baby Ride Around In Limousines

My first real introduction to Opus One was back in my restaurant days when I was a manager at a country club in Dayton, OH. You see the label and – as a novice – think that’s really expensive, so that means it’s good, right? I’d see it on our wine list, and in the wine fridges, and think, wonder if this is any good. At another country club I worked at, I had a table of 6 people go through something like 8 or 9 bottles of the stuff – sure was an impressive bar tab. But I wouldn’t actually try it until years later, my first retail wine buying gig, and first job in Cincinnati, when a dear friend – repping for Mondavi at the time, to pick me up in a limo and circle the block, tasting two vintages of Opus.
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I have to admit, to coin a phrase from the kids, “that was pretty baller.” I remember the 1984 vintage was odd – it was the only vintage Opus didn’t use any of their own fruit; it was all purchased fruit, I believe that is what my friend told me, but I can’t remember the other vintage. I want to say it was 1998 – which wasn’t a great vintage, and perhaps it was as I don’t recall much about the wine. The bigger impact then was the ride around the block in a limo with a dear friend and some high roller wine. That being said, a few years later, while at a store across the river, I finally got that chance to really taste this marquee brand at a trade show, where it started to compute to me, finally, what people saw in this wine. And over the years, with each time, each encounter, I get to understand a little more about the mystique of Opus One.
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Recently one of my favorite people in the biz dropped in with Gina Voci, the Central U.S. Regional Manager for Opus, and as a rare treat, we tried their often more-sought-after Overture, Opus’ little brother.
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Overture Red Napa Valley NV.  Taking all 5 Bordeaux grapes, blending multiple vintages together to get this pretty well-integrated red is pretty remarkable. Smooth, velvety tannins, lithe presentation of black fruits, oak spice, leather, tobacco, black pepper and espresso all mixing it up a quite sophisticated affair. ​

Opus One 2014.  The notion of the 2014 is kind of like Led Zeppelin following the Rolling Stones, which is to say, yeah 2013 is legendary, but 2014 is pretty damn awesome too. Chock full of crushed flowers, tree bark and black fruits in the nose, followed by laser-focused black fruits, earth undertones, and hints of black pepper, oak spice and cedar smoke. Sure it’s pretty tightly wound in the glass but it hasn’t even been released yet. Patience, man! It’s definitely going to grow up and be one sexy beast to be sure.