Opus one

Opus one

IN 1970 ROBERT MONDAVI AND BARON PHILLIPPE DE ROTHSCHILD MET IN HAWAII AND BARON ROTHSCHILD PROPOSED A JOIN VENTURE,BUT ONLY IN 1978 HE INVAITED ROBERT MONDAVI TO BORDEAUX. AND IN TWO HOURS THE PUT TOGHETER THEIR PLAIN.
1979 WINEMAKER LUCIEN SIONNEAU AND TIMOTY MONDAVI MADE THE FIRST PARTENERSHIP'S VINTAGE AT THR ROBERT MONDAVI WINERY.

THEY AGREE UPON 50% PARTENER SHIP WITH THE AMBITIONTO CREAT AN HISTORICAL WINE FOR QUALITY.
1980 THEY OFFICILLY ANNUCED THEIR JOIN ADVENTURE.

WINE TASTING 21221t1911v

"OPUS ONE"

Good afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

I'm quite confident, that by now you are all ready to ear about one of the best wines that we have in our Wine List But before I go into the details of the making of this wine, I'd like to give you just a little briefing of how this wine was created.

"Opus One" is nowadays, one of the famous Wineries in Napa Valey, It's vineyards covers an area of 140 acres. Opus One Winery is situated about 50 miles north of San Francisco along the highway between Oakville and Ruterford, this wine that I'm talking about now, was created due to a Joint Venture between two great winemakers, Robert Mondavi & Baron Philippe de Rothschild, it was their intention to produce a wine that would stand alone not only in spirit, but in exceptional quality.

This two great winemakers met for the first time in Hawahi in 1970, and it was than when they came up with the idea of creating such wine. This Joint Venture only took place in 1978,

When Baron Philippe de Rothschild invited Robert Mondavi to come to France "Bordeaux" and in just two hours they come up with the decision to go ahead with the partnership to produce this outstanding wine.

However this joint venture was only announced a year later when the first partnership vintage wine was born (1979) which was produced from selected parts of vineyards of Robert Mondavi and also produced in R. M. facilities.

Right the next year they start purchasing vineyards and start to build the facilities that would be used exclusively for the production of "Opus One", however it was only in 1991 that they started producing "Opus One " in that same facilities " Opus One Wineries".

The first release of "Opus One" was in 1984, made of a blend between the two first vintages, 1979 and 1980 and in that same year they released also the vintages of 1979 and 1980.

In 1988, Baron Philippe de Rothschild died, and his daughter Baroness Philippine took over the business and at the same year, "Opus One" exported a share of its1985 vintage which became the first "ultra premium" Californian wineto be sold in France, England, Germany and Switzerland.

By 1998"Opus One" was already sold in more than 65 world markets and producing an average of 15,000 cases a year and nowadays produces around 30,000 cases a year.

Why is it so peculiar this wine? This excellent wine is made on an extremely careful and gentle process.

The harvest (as most grapes) starts the 2^nd week of September and goes through the first week of October.

The clusters are picked by hand and carried to the winery in small boxes that holds no more than 35 pounds each (because they do not want to crush the grapes).

Once in the winery, the grapes are placed in a sorting table and they are carefully selected according to their conditions under ripe or over ripe, leaves, stems and crushed grapes are removed.

The blending of "Opus One" is so carefully done that it takes almost 10 hours when in other wineries to make certain wines it may take only 10 to 20 minutes. This wine has fermentation time that ranges from 36 to 42 hours at 20C

That is left to age for about 18 months or more in new French oak barrels (which are used only once and then used in a lesser quality wine)

After the wine is transferred to the bottle and have another additional 18 to 20 months aging in the bottle before it is released to the market

Like I said before this wine is also a blended wine in percentage of:

91% cabernet sauvignon

7% cabernet Franc

1% merlot

1% petit verdoc and malbec grapes

In this particular vintage (1998) the wine shows a nice strong texture medium full bodied wine, smooth tannins. Intense aromas of blackberries, vanilla and oak and an intense opaque purple color.