Opus one 2004 vintage tasting notes7/16/2023 The oldest vintage I have had was the inaugural 1979 (made from grapes from Mondavi’s To Kalon vineyard) which at 30 years of age was still vibrant. All the wines show a restrained style in which flavor development steadily accentuates with age. The wine feels 4-5 years less developed rather than more developed by comparison with the 2010: it is just at the point of making the transition from fruity to savory. The 2006 growing season was also relatively cool, but had a heat wave earlier in the season, in July. Showing some tertiary notes, it’s perfect now. The wine impresses as ripe, but reflecting cool-climate conditions. The 2010 reflects a (relatively) cooler growing season until there were heat spikes at the end of August and in September. The 2010 is more developed than the 2006 in fact, in a blind tasting I would probably have reversed the vintages of this pair. The current release, the 2017, isn’t releasing a lot of fruit or aromatics yet coiled up tight, it is waiting to unwind. Taking the European aesthetic farther, the wines are extremely expressive of vintage. Opus One is easy to under-rate in its early years, when it tends to be somewhat dumb, with a touch of austerity, but it comes out, decade by decade, so my tasting at the winery of wines from three decades was the perfect way to assess it. Initially the blend started with Cabernet Franc and Merlot Malbec was added in 1994 and Petit Verdot was added in 1997. There are 70 acres of vineyard around the winery and another 100 acres split between To Kalon north and south. The lowest Cabernet Sauvignon was 71% in the cool, wet year of 2011 the highest was 97% in 1989. The wine is labeled as a proprietary red, but usually has more than 80% Cabernet Sauvignon (enough to carry a varietal label). This very sexy and showy wine, rated 91 in Issue 118, merited 92 in March.As one of the first collaborations between Bordeaux and Napa winemakers, it was assumed from the start that the wine would be a Bordeaux blend. The wild, distinctly Old World 21, on the other hand, was wonderfully dense, sweet and lush without coming across as heavy, showing complex notes of cassis, graphite, spicecake, leather and game lovely inner-mouth perfume and an explosive finish featuring fine-grained, suave tannins that reach the front teeth. This rather backward wine needs time but I find it disappointing in the context of the vintage, rating 87+?. The '2 in March was less herbal and minty than my sample two years ago but still high-toned, truffley and a bit vegetal, with a note of black olive and a rather chunky texture. (I continue to find the '3 too herbal, lean and dry to recommend. Bottled in July of 26, for the first time without being fined. This makes the 25 seem a bit dry by comparison. Finishes with big but sweet tannins and a lingering minerality. There's lovely sweetness to the black fruit and licorice flavors. Denser than the 25 and a step up in intensity but nicely light on its feet. Roasted black raspberry, blackberry, spicecake, licorice, minerals and nutty oak on the nose.
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