March 31, 2024 - No rating as this is not my style of wine.
Despite having been a wine drinker for over thirty years, I had not previously had an Opus One. I've had several people recommend it and one recommender was from such an insufferable blowhard that I was turned off from trying it for years. While I realize that this isn't a top vintage of Opus, it still has a good score and generally positive reviews.
I now understand why this is such a crowd-pleaser. I found the wine incredibly smooth and soft, but to me it bordered on watery. This wine has never seen, nor even heard of, tannins. And then there's the vanilla. Far too much oak for me, but it seems so popular, a la Caymus and others. There was some red fruit here, and everything is in balance (except the oak/vanilla) but it lacks body and any sense of terroir.
If this is your style, enjoy it! There's nothing wrong with it. For me, it's incredibly generic and the QPR is so far out of line it's oenological malfeasance.
March 25, 2024 - Medium+ noise intensity with notes of green bell pepper, mint, herbs, black fruits, spices, toast. Medium+ acidity and medium tannin. Medium finish and slightly sweet on the palate. Felt that it could be bottle variation as I had better bottle before.
February 19, 2024 - Oak is very well integrated, lovely acidity, very persistent finish. Red fruits, spice, and just a hint of herb.
February 19, 2024 - Soy sauce, red fruit, some spices. Medium body and elegant. Still tannic. At it’s prime.
February 12, 2024 - Napa and Sonoma, January 2024: Tasted at winery.
On the nose, wet cement and old books. Took some time to mellow out and would probably benefit from a decant.
Our server was kind enough to serve a splash of this without a charge, which was much appreciated.
January 14, 2024 - Tasted at Opus Winery
December 15, 2023 - My first exp with Opus. Out of mag. Cigar box all over the nose here which was really beautiful. On the palate, this took a while to open up. Needed at least 3+ to start showing itself. I agree with some of the comments regarding this lacking mid palate at this stage. If you can, wait.
November 24, 2023 - Tasted at the winery along with 2018 and 2019, already showed some leather and cigar box flavor from aging. Good balance and structure, but slightly lacking some mid palette. 93pts
July 10, 2023 - Decanted a good 1.5h in advance. Intense and aromatic nose with ripe dark fruit,(not the typical sweet jammied fruit you find in many of the Cali wines) pungent spice, leather & smoke. Sweet spice more evident on the palate and would say oak is not entirely integrated just yet. Palate is extremely graceful, texture is so silky, has very fine grained tannins which are well supported by a juicy concentration but still have a good grip. I would rather call this an elegant approach to this BDX blend as I've tasted more powerful examples of this wine.
June 18, 2023 - Really beautiful nose doing everything we want (after a two hour decant). Tobacco, compost, dried leaves, a sneaky bit of fruit after a while. Palate was extremely boring. Pretty much tannin, alcohol, and nothing else, except perhaps a little bit of overripe blackberry you forgot in the fridge. Conventional wisdom would say age would do this wine well, but I wouldn't agree after tasting even older examples, tbh.