97 / 100 Robert Parker Composed of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot and 2% Malbec, Opus One's 2015 Proprietary Red Wine is truly an iron fist in a velvet glove, delivering a powerhouse of flavors and structure with a seductively plush texture. It opens with a deep garnet-purple color and wonderfully spicy notes of cinnamon stick, cloves and fenugreek with a core of cherry preserves, redcurrant jelly, blackberry pie and warm plums plus hints of camphor, lavender and cigar box. Full-bodied, rich and bold in the mouth, it fills the palate with exotic spice-laced black and red fruits, framed by firm, beautifully ripe, grainy tannins and great freshness, finishing with epic persistence. Although it is already approachable, allow it another 3-5 years in bottle for its myriad of subtle accents to fully blossom and then drink it over the next 30+ years.
Call it a hat trick: Opus One knocks it out of the park with three excellent, if very different, takes on the the last string of vintages: 2015, 2016 and 2017. Already previously reviewed as a barrel sample, the 2015 was a show-stopper from barrel and is equally impressive in bottle. The last of the "drought" years and a rather warm one at that, the resolute nature of these impeccably tended Oakville vines is apparent in the complex layers, beautiful freshness and rock-solid frame of this wine. 2016 is the vintage winemakers can't remember because it was so uneventful. "We had plenty of rain in the early part of the year," commented Opus One winemaker Michael Silacci, "followed by an early budbreak. We were able to pick fairly regularly with an even flow in the cellar." The more 2016s I taste, the harder it is to fault this decadent, rich, blue and black-fruited vintage. 2017 was, of course, another vintage story altogether and one that I will cover comprehensively in my full Napa report at the end of October. It was a year that started with a deluge, got blasted with heat during Labor Day weekend and then suffered the most devastating wildfires this area has seen just at the tail end of harvest. After all is said and done, I only judge what's in the glass, and what I've tasted so far (admittedly from some of the very best wineries in the Valley) is not too shabby at all. Readers can generally expect elegant, refreshing, medium-bodied wines—like this 2017 Opus One—with pretty perfumes, red fruit signatures and subtle dried herbs in the background. Tannins generally aren't as plush and ripe as in previous vintages, but it's nothing that judicious extractions can't manage. Smoke taint? I certainly didn't pick up any in this Opus One sample, although Opus One had nearly finished harvest (90%) by the first night of the fires. 238, The Wine Advocate
93 / 100 Wine Spectator Pure, rich dark berry, plum and gravelly earth flavors are framed by spicy, cedary oak notes, ending long, clean and elegant, with just the right touch of tannins. Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec. Best from 2020 through 2030. 21,600 cases made. https://www.winespectator.com/wine/detail/source/search/no..
17.5 / 20 Jancis Robinson 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 2% Malbec vinified separately but with an average of 21 days' maceration and 18 months ageing in new French oak. I think we can assume that Michael Silacci and his team were allowed to spare no expense. Very warm, dry year, the warmest since 2008, with only a single February storm to fill dams between the end of 2014 and harvest. There were two periods of cooler weather; one during flowering resulted in relatively small clusters and another in very early September just after the start of a protracted harvest that lasted until 8 October. To be offered on the Bordeaux Place on Monday 3 September. (The 2014 was about €225 a bottle en primeur.)
Somehow Silacci and Co have managed to produce a wine that does not taste as though it's the produce of a drought and heatwave and needs the microscope required to read the alcohol level on most Napa Valley wines to discern that it is indeed 15% alcohol. Freshness is the overriding impression - thank you, Pacific Ocean and your nightly visits, presumably. There is little suggestion of anything super ripe or heady. The crimson is distinctly transparent and the nose, as well as transmitting freshness, is appetising and cedar. This is a fresh, direct wine that developed some spiciness in the glass. It is extraordinarily broachable already, although is certainly best drink with food thanks to its light charge of neat tannins. There is some sweetness but no obvious heaviness. This seems to nicely exemplify the new, fresher Napa Valley school.
https://www.jancisrobinson.com/tastings/search?keywords=Op..
