I was just some average Joe (which I prefer when visiting a winery). Remember that they didn’t know who I was when I was there. With their testing they get it well below 1%. Cork taint is estimate to effect 2%-7% of all bottles that use natural cork. They even have a laboratory, so they can reduce cork taint in their corks to a negligible percentage.
To list a few: Harvesting at night, straining their vines (so that they go deeper), hand harvesting, optical sorter (takes pictures of each of the grapes and rejects ones that are not the right color or size), a bladder press (best type of press on the market), and gravity fed tanks.
He talked about all the efforts they take in making the best wine possible. He also looked like Jamie from Game of Thrones, I had to do a few double takes when I first meet him.
#BUY OPUS ONE WINES PROFESSIONAL#
My tour guide was SUPER professional and knowledgeable. I got to see the vines, their facilities, tanks, barrel room, and they gave everyone a very good lesson/overview of the history and production of the wine. I would say it was the second best tour I have taken of a winery to date. I opted to do the estate tour which was $85 and well worth it. The stone white structure with sloping grass on it sides is situated in the middle of the vineyards and is very impressive. I was a few minutes early to my scheduled tour, so I checked in with the concierge where I was told I could wait on the balcony and take in the views. The drive up to the structure itself was breathtaking. Remember that this is a 1st class winery that is known around the world and is must on all the wine menus at a 5 star dining venues in the United States. I visited there in the Fall of 2017 and let me tell you there is a bunch of pomp and circumstance going on. Let’s get to the good stuff about Opus One. It didn’t take him long to get his butt over to Napa and create Opus One in 1978 with Mondavi (the father of Napa). What gets overlooked many times at the 1976 Judgment of Paris is that Rothschild just had his life work accomplished and his Cabernet Sauvignon came in second to a then unknown winery called Stag’s Leap from Napa California! I am pretty sure he was in tears and pretty pissed. This really shook the foundations of the wine world and showed that a bottle of French wine was no longer the guaranteed top dog on a wine menu.
#BUY OPUS ONE WINES MOVIE#
Most of you will know about the 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena (Dramaticized by the 2008 movie Bottle Shock) that took first place for the Chardonnay category and rocked the wine world! A modern day equivalent would be when Holly Holm defeated Ronda Rousey in UFC 193. Think about how hard and long he must have worked to get this accomplished. To this day there have been only three changes to the 1855 classifications and the other two were very minor. It was well fought for and well deserved (his wine was just as good as the other first growth wineries in France) and he celebrated. In 1973 he accomplished his lifetime time goal of achieving a first growth classification for his Chateau. Remember that the French wine laws are EXTREMELY strict. He fought tooth and nail and had to go through many layers of red tape to get this accomplished. He then dedicated the next 40 years of his life to elevate his Chateau from a second growth to a first growth classification. Back in that time there was only 4 first growth wineries. It is widely speculated that the second growth rating was due to the fact it was an Englishman that owned the estate. This winery was deemed a second growth winery by the 1855 classification (if you ain’t first you’re last). He inherited Chateau Mouton estate in 1922. Now for a history lesson about the great Baron Philippe de Rothschild. That’s right, they make only one wine! Well… they do make a second one that is a non vintage blend with wine that is leftover from previous years that is a 1/3 of the price, called Overture. This winery is the brainchild of Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild to make a single Bordeaux style wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot, and Malbec) in Napa California. For those readers who are unfamiliar with the name Opus One I will give you a quick crash course.
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