Opus One Wine Tasting back to the 1979 Vintage

“Excellent wine generates enthusiasm. And whatever you do with enthusiasm is generally successful.” Baron Philippe de Rothschild, quoted in: “All American wine tastes the same … like Coca Cola.”

- Baron Philippe de Rothschild, The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

I can’t tell you the last time I had Coca Cola, wine and water are the two most important beverages you can put in your body. 

September/October means it’s time for the fall releases and none of these are more highly anticipated than the iconic Opus and this year we are anxiously awaiting the release of the 2022 vintage.  This vintage looks to be exceptional in Napa Valley, a forward and drinkable vintage that will not need as long in the cellar as the outstanding 2021.

Are there two men that walked the earth over the last 100 years that were more important to the wine industry as a whole?  I am talking about the two original partners in the Opus One project; Robert Mondavi and the Baron Philippe de Rothschild.

Well, it is kind of ironic that the wines from this winery are now getting the best press ever.  We have always been big fans of Opus One and have hosted several events over the years with this winery including an event that put all 26 consecutive vintages released at that time of Opus One on the table.  The 1979 showed brilliantly on that occasion as it did in 2010 when we showed it at the great wine seminar with Opus’s CEO David Pearson.  Even the French tasters, Pierre-Emanuel Taittinger, Eric Rousseau and Pierre Lurton had nice things to say about this first growth of the Napa Valley.

The newest release is here and although the wine continues to go up in price it has not slowed the demand for this iconic wine as it is sold in over 80 countries the world over and is considered to be one of the most prestigious brands in the wine business.

You can argue that there are better wines at a lower price, but there is no disputing that Opus One is the most successful wine brand created in our lifetime.  There is no other wine that has come on the scene the last 45 years that is over 30,000 cases in production and that now costs over $400 per bottle.  Opus One is the best investment you could have made in wine the last 40 years!

Join us as we showcase the newest release of Opus One along with older vintages going all the way back to the first three releases of this Iconic wine 1979, 1980 and 1981.  The fee for this tasting is $595 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com. 

Opus One Wine Tasting back to the 1979 Vintage

Friday, October 10, 2025

7:30 PM

1979 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine Napa

1980 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine Napa

1981 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine Napa

2000 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine Napa

2010 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine Napa

2019 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine Napa

2021 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine Napa

2022 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine Napa

Menu

Selection of Cheese and Charcuterie

Portobello Mushroom Carpaccio with Heirloom Tomato Tartar and Lavender Aioli

 Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras Served with Bourbon Vegetable Broth, Edamame, Tomato Concasse and Mascarpone Cheese Tortellini

Japanese A5 Waygu Filet with Ponzu Cabernet Sauce and Sweet Potato Gratin

Dark Chocolate Crème Brulee with Raspberry Sauce

The fee for this tasting is $595 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any dietary restrictions and chefs Toni and Dani will be happy to accommodate you.

A bit more about Opus One:

Over the span of a little more than three decades Opus One has become the most renowned name in American wine.  The ride to the top has never been easy for the folks behind Opus One.  From its conception as an idea created by the late Robert Mondavi and the late Baron de Rothschild, Opus One has been enveloped in controversy.  The ambitious price of the first release, the doubting critics, the cynical consumers, and the overworked hype that has surrounded the wine from the beginning have all fueled the debate about its real quality.  However, the new century has ushered in a new era for Opus One - this great winery's place in the future scheme of things has now been accepted and the quality niche it has carved for itself is no longer being questioned by the wine community.  Opus One has proven itself beyond a doubt - it has, does, and you know you have made it in the world of elite wines when your peers from Bordeaux refer to you as one of the "First Growths" of Napa Valley.

The seeds for Opus were sown as far back as 1970 when Baron Rothschild visited California and made the oft-quoted statement "California wines are like Coca-Cola - they all taste the same."  By 1975 the revered Baron, the dynamo who revolutionized Bordeaux and brought great fame to his beloved Château Mouton, apparently had a change of heart.  He and Robert Mondavi met that year in Hawaii to discuss future possibilities.  Four years later in 1979 the good Baron announced a joint venture with his American counterpart, Robert Mondavi, to produce a Franco-American wine in the Napa Valley.  Conceived to utilize French vinification techniques and traditional Bordeaux grape varieties, the wine would be grown and produced in California; the winemaking decisions would be made jointly by Robert Mondavi's winemaker, Tim Mondavi, and his counterpart at Château Mouton, Lucien Sionneau (Sionneau, now retired, was replaced by Patrick Léon).  The first vintage for Opus One was harvested in 1979, but it was not until October 1983 that a name for the wine was announced.  Hundreds of choices were considered; but it was the Baron, a great patron of the arts and a lover of music, who suggested the name so closely associated with the art of music.  When the name was revealed, Baron Philippe said in an interview: "A bottle of wine is a symphony to me".  A full two years earlier excitement about the first release of this historic venture reached a crescendo at the first Napa Valley Wine Auction in the summer of 1981.  A barrel of the 1979 vintage came up for sale.  Nobody but the winemakers and the inner circle of Mondavi's staff had even tasted the wine, yet the bidding was furious for the first case from the first barrel.  In less than three minutes the gavel slammed on the winning bid of $24,000 from Charles Mara of Syracuse, New York.  The purchase price set an auction record - $2000 a bottle for California wine.

In the beginning, the grapes for Opus One came from Mondavi's best and most famous piece of vineyard real estate, the To-Kalon Ranch, 100 acres of which (known as the "Q Block") were sold to the joint venture by the Mondavi family after the partnership was formed in 1979.  In 1983 Opus One began planting on a site across Highway 29 from the Robert Mondavi Winery; it was to be called the River Parcel and is north of the present winery.  Two years later the Ballestra Vineyard was planted on what is now the south side of the winery.  In the ensuing years phylloxera struck and completely devastated the first two vineyards (now replanted).  Only Ballestra, which was planted on resistant rootstock at the specific instruction of Mouton's technical director, Patrick Léon, survived the epidemic unscathed.  The winery follows a gravity flow design that put most of the vast edifice underground, covering it with an earthen berm that rises, pyramid-like, from the flat vineyard plain of Oakville which surrounds the site.  No expense was spared to build the Opus One winery.  According to Robert Mondavi, "We stopped at nothing to buy the finest equipment in order to produce the kind of wine we wanted...We looked at the finest materials in the world.  We didn't look at price; we picked what we wanted...we felt this was being built, not for the next 10 or 15 years, but for the next couple of hundred years."  Construction of the winery was not without its obstacles.  The cellar had to be waterproofed, insulated, and cooled using a costly radiant system based on miles of pipes in the cellar's floor and ceiling that circulate 45 F water, cooling the air to 55 F.  Those measures, plus the cost overruns that often are associated with high profile construction projects, caused the Opus One winery budget to balloon.  From initial concept to completion, the project took seven years to finish.  When the doors opened in 1991, winery officials conceded that Opus, budgeted between $10 and $13 million, had cost a staggering $26 million!

The first two vintages of Opus One - 1979 and 1980 - were released together in the spring of 1984.  The wines were controversial in that not all felt they were of outstanding quality.  However, most observers now believe that recent vintages have been at the very top echelon of reds produced in California.  The wines have also become serious collectibles.  The 1985 - one of the top vintages of the 1980's - now commands $400 to $650 a bottle.  A bit high for a bottle of California wine, but that seem small in comparison to the 1979 (the first vintage, hardly drinkable at this point) this wine is selling for around $2000- a true trophy wine.