Philippe de Rothschild once said that “making a great wine is easy it’s just the first 100 years that are difficult”. We wouldn’t want it any other way, either! The result of this hybrid culture is a meeting of minds and methods that produces truly special wine. Yet, however much the traditional, ‘old-world’ approach could be imitated, such a project was bound to grow legs (or roots!) of its own. Teaming up with Robert Mondavi, the Baron de Rothschild’s mission was to bring Bordeaux’s viticulture to life on totally new ground, which meant initially importing Bordeaux’s classic grape varieties, oak barrels for the same kind of ageing, and more than a suitcaseful of ancestral know-how. When Philippe de Rothschild took a liking to California’s character, the idea of bringing his vast wine-making experience over the Atlantic was self-evident. Opus One has been an ambitious project since the day it was thought up. Here’s what we learnt with Gwendoline La Burthe, Export Manager France for Opus One.
Such a quick shift in the climate sets the scene nicely for a Californian domain born of contrasting cultures, and whose wines we were lucky enough to taste as a team this month. During harvest season, the workers at Opus One don their woolly hats and scarves to pick the estate’s all-precious fruit by night, so far does the temperature plummet. When the sun sets behind this immense landscape, though, what’s revealed is a different world.
When the renovations are completed in 2020 Opus One plans to offer a new range of tasting experiences.The hues and contours of California’s Napa Valley are infused with bright sunshine, framed by a broad backdrop of hills and an expanse of vineyards that stretch far, far further than the eye can see. Tours of the vineyard and winery are also available as well as a gorgeous view of the Oakville Appellation from the winery’s rooftop terrace. The Opus One Tasting Room is open daily by appointment from 10 am to 4 pm. Seen from its center, the Grand Chai appears to curve into infinity. One thousand barrels are arranged side by side in the Grand Chai, where the wine is nurtured and aged in new French oak during the first year of its life. Beyond its glass walls an entire vintage of Opus One rests in the Grand Chai, a cool, semi-circular cellar. The architecture ushers guests toward the heart of the winery – the Opus One Tasting Room. A room furnished with seeming contradictions, the Salon is a deft merging of Old and New World sensibilities. Brightly glazed, modern ceramics line a fifteenth-century limestone mantel. In the Salon, the winery’s most formal space, eighteenth-century Italian opera chairs face contemporary chenille sofas and suede seating. The quiet profile of Opus One blends with the natural surroundings – the vineyards and rolling hills of the Napa Valley.
The building now literally rises out of the earth, and through a mix of classical European and contemporary Californian elements, gradually discloses its distinctive beauty. In July of 1989, groundbreaking for the new winery took place and the construction of the facility was completed in 1991. In 1984, Baron Philippe, his daughter Philippine and Robert Mondavi selected Scott Johnson, an architect of Johnson, Fain & Pereira, to design the Opus One winery. The winery consists of 170 acres the first estate vineyard acquired in 1981, when Robert Mondavi sold 35 acres that was apart of his famous To-Kalon Vineyard. Their four vineyards are meticulously hedged and cultivated with passion and perfection, the vintners being well aware that great winemaking begins first and foremost in the vineyards. Looking out across Opus One’s vineyards, one immediately senses Opus One is different. The winery creates an exceptional Bordeaux blend, their one and only specialty wine. By combining the great winemaking traditions and innovations of both families, the founders’ singular goal was to create an exceptional wine in the heart of Napa Valley, in which they have succeeded. Opus One was founded by renowned Napa Valley vintner Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Château Mouton Rothschild, which is in Pauillac, France.
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