2010 Opus One

Primary and muscular, with tannins that are on the austere side. This is a wonderfully fragrant, robust and concentrated interpretation of Cabernet Sauvignon, garrigue, dried herbs, espresso, less generous than some but maintains juice and balance, blackcurrant, rose buds, textural with a crayon and slate feel. 19 days skin contact, 100% new oak for ageing, harvest lasted exactly one month from September 23 to October 23 after a year with a cool start followed by an intense heat wave. Michael Silacci director.

The 2010 Opus One is on another level and is a deep, concentrated, full-bodied, flawlessly balanced beauty. From a cooler vintage that saw significant heat spikes later in the year, it has incredible purity in its cassis and darker fruits as well as leafy tobacco, flowers, and background oak. With a great mid-palate, ripe, building tannins, and full-bodied richness on the palate, it’s a brilliant wine that has another two decades or more of prime drinking.

Bright dark ruby. Initially reticent nose opened in the glass to reveal wonderfully complex scents of black- and redcurrant, blackberry, minerals, licorice, loam and tobacco leaf, plus a whiff of leather. Seamless, savory and classy on entry if a bit subdued, then delivers lovely restrained sweetness and a complicating wildness in the middle palate that still calls for more bottle aging. Old World in its classic dryness, this highly concentrated Opus One really shines on its vibrant, slowly building back end, where the broad, dusty tannins caress and saturate the palate and allow the fruits and minerals to build. A wine of outstanding depth, clarity, finesse of grain and class; it's hard to imagine that this site could give more. Long-time winemaking director Michael Silacci noted that the estate did not strip leaves prior to the brutal August heat spike. (ST)