In 1984, Sionneau retired and Patrick Leon took his place, continuing to produce the wine with Tim Mondavi until 2000.

Opus One emerged as a happy blend of these two styles. Coming from two very different backgrounds, the winemakers diverged in style, with Mondavi preferring rich, well-rounded wines and a more risk-taking attitude to winemaking, while Sionneau looked for structure and austerity in a conventional approach. This very first release of Opus One cost $50 bottles, making it the most expensive California wine at the time and bringing unprecedented international attention to the Napa Valley region.Īt this time, the wines were produced by Robert Mondavi’s son Tim Mondavi and Lucien Sionneau, winemaker at the prestigious Chateau Mouton Rothschild in the Pauillac appellation of Bordeaux. The wine was made from the very best parcels of Mondavi’s estate, the famous 35-acre Q block of the To Kaylon vineyard.

In the year 1979, the dream became a reality with the first bottled vintage of Opus One, which was commercialized in 1984. The two visionaries began to formulate a plan to create the equivalent of a Bordeaux First Growth in the Napa Valley region. The early 1970’s saw the formation of a friendship between the legendary Bordeaux wine magnate Baron Philippe Rothschild and Robert Mondavi, ruler of the eponymous wine empire in California. Its emblematic blue label tells the story of the union between two visionaries, the merger of two dynasties to produce one iconic wine: a Bordeaux-style Grand Vin from the greatest terroirs of Napa. In the world of fine wines, Opus One has no equal. The project, which also saw the addition of a new parcel known as To-Kalon South, is now jointly managed by the Rothschild family and Constellation brands. They stay in the cellar, aging in bottle for another 15 months, before being released on the market in October of each new year.įour years before his death in 2008, Robert Mondavi sold Robert Mondavi Winery to the Constellation Brands wine conglomerate, along with his 50% share in Opus One.

The wines are vinified separately before being matured in French oak barrels for a period of 18 months. While the exact proportions depend on vintage, the blend is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, complemented by Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec, reminiscent of Bordeaux's Left Bank. Today, this highly sought-after wine is produced from four different parcels, two parcels making up the famous 40-hectare To-Kalon vineyard, along with the River and Ballestra Parcels surrounding the Opus One winery. The exceptional style of Opus One resulted from the combination of their talent, their vision and the unique terroir of the Oakville AVA (an Eden for Cabernet Sauvignon). It was their aim to develop a New World equivalent to a Bordeaux First Growth in the Napa Valley region of California. The world-renowned Opus One was created in the 1970's as a result of a merger between two visionaries, Baron Philippe de Rothschild (lengendary Bordeaux wine magnate and owner of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild in Pauillac) and Robert Mondavi (an icon in the history of American winewith a namesake wine empire in California).

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