She says, “I don’t think you would ever mistake these wines for a top Bordeaux – they’re too ripe and sweet for that,” yet Opus One also never tastes too fruity or alcohol-heavy either. Jancis Robinson explains that Opus One wines have a drier flavor profile that is similar to Bordeaux. However, even the biggest Opus One wines still aren’t as fruit-driven as the ones made by many other prestigious Californian producers. Some of the best vintage years for Opus One produced wines that are rich and opulent in style, with intense flavors that make a memorable first impression on the palate. Our guide to the best Opus One vintages will help you narrow down your choices and build a rewarding collection of these iconic wines. To pick the best vintages for your own collection, you’ll want to consider which of these two styles you prefer as well as whether you plan on reselling your bottles on the secondary market in the future. Some vintages are fruit-driven and intense in flavor, while others are delicate and bright. I’d never had such an acidic example of Opus One before and it proved just how diverse in flavor these wines can be.ĭesignating one year as the best vintage year for Opus One is a difficult and subjective task wines from two different years may both be fantastic in completely different ways. When the sommelier revealed the wine to be a bottle of 1981 Opus One, we were both surprised. Neither of us was sure who the producer was. This wine was racy, acidic, and so lively that I almost thought the sommelier had served us a much younger Cabernet by mistake. I managed to identify three of the wines ( Harlan Estate, Hundred Acre, and Dalla Valle ), but we were both stumped on the fourth wine. We decided to challenge ourselves to see whether we could guess which producers made each of them. A few months ago, I went to a blind tasting with a colleague and we were served four bottles of aged California Cabernet Sauvignon.

Opus one 2001