Its genesis is one of privilege, a joint venture between two wine giants and leaders in innovation, Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild. The reason for this is that it is still priced very competitively against its Bordeaux equivalent First Growths, particularly given its incredible power, voluptuous mouthfeel and stunning purity. Opus One’s rise to global acclaim began with its first vintage in 1979, released in 1984 and at the time it was California’s most expensive wine at $50 per bottle. The production of Opus One is similar to Lafite and Mouton Rothschild at 25,000 cases per year, however, due to the immense popularity there is already an apparent shortfall in supply. Today’s release continues this trend, with the average trading price of vintages back to 2005 trading 14% higher. It provides consistent and attractive long-term price appreciation, since the release of the 2009 vintage collectors have been rewarded on average 48% price appreciation from release price to the current market price. Opus One historically displays a brilliant vintage premium, as presented in the table below. The release price today reflects a 13% increase on last year, priced today at £1,470 per case of six. This makes it a blockbuster Opus, among the finest ever made. It comes as no surprise therefore, that Opus one 2016 has been awarded a superb 97+ points from Perrotti-Brown, who calls it a ‘very decadent expression of Opus One with a provocatively effortless harmoniousness that is truly difficult to resist.’ It has been awarded 99 points from James Suckling and 96+ points from Antonio Galloni from Vinous Media, who says ‘I expect the 2016 will enjoy a long drinking window that will start to open relatively soon’. Lisa Perrotti-Brown of The Wine Advocate says, ‘I believe 2016 to be the best, most consistent Napa Valley vintage among a string of five great years: 2012-2016.’ This is of course incredible praise. A cooler than average August saw the grapes ripen gradually, resulting in wines which display excellent freshness, higher than average acidity, balanced with superb complexity. The 2016 vintage in Napa is – as James Suckling says – an ‘outstanding vintage for reds with the 2016, making it the fifth top year in a row.’ Indeed, it began with heavy rainfall in Autumn, the perfect relief of the drought status in the region. Opus One 2016 has released this morning, which gets the Bordeaux September campaign off to an exciting start with one of the most popular releases of the year.
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