Description

They met while on holiday on the Big Island of Hawaii, at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. One is the owner of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux. The other is one of Napa Valley’s most renowned winemakers. But they have one thing in common: they are both masters of Cabernet Sauvignon. This meeting between Philippe de Rothschild and Robert Mondavi was the beginning of the Opus One winery, a project where they create unique, exclusive and highly sought-after wines with one key objective: to achieve unbeatable quality. Under this premise they make Opus One, a red wine from the A.V.A. Oakville, in the Napa Valley. Opus One owns 68 hectares in the western part of the denomination, split into four vineyards planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Here, under the signature and supervision of winemaker Michael Silacci, who joined the winery in 2001, manual harvesting is interspersed with more modern, mechanical techniques (providing this will not harm the final result). After this, the Opus One grapes are selected using an optical sorter and fermented separately in stainless steel tanks. Once the yeast has finished its work, Opus One spends 17 days macerating with the skins, finally being blended and aged for 18 months in new French oak barrels.