

Fine-grained tannins offer a velvery texture and complex structure that builds to a long, vibrantly fresh finish with a touch of mocha. After a silky entry, dark fruit flavors emerge with hints of baking spice and black olive. The 2014 Opus One exudes subtle aromes of fragrant florals, fresh garden herbs and forest floor that give way to a concentrated blend of red cherry, blackberry, and black currant. Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec. The tannins are firm and gripping, standing out a bit from the core texture. Rich and creamy, intense and layered, featuring a mix of blackberry, licorice, mocha, cedar and tobacco flavors, with a touch of gravelly earth. It's quite a serious, savoury Opus which will need a few years in the cellar to unwind. On the palate the wine is youthfully taut, with a good line of acidity and fine but assertive tannins. (Antonio Galloni)Ī cool bouquet of fruit compote and wild plum mingles with notes of clove, incense and lilac. give way to a concentrated blend of red cherry, blackberry and black currant. In short, the 2014 is a wine of tension, power and grace. Rising gracefully from the vineyards, Opus One winery stands in subtle. The 2014 is not an obvious Opus One, like the 2010, 2012 or 2013, but over time, I will not be surprised if it challenges or even surpasses some of those vintages. A sleeper wine for the year, the 2014 is shaping up to be a gorgeous wine that will handsomely repay several decades of cellaring. The tannins are firm but also impeccably balanced.

Savory, tightly wound and intensely aromatic, the 2014 is going to need time to unwind, but it looks like it will develop along the more classic vintages here. The 2014 Opus One has turned out to be a gorgeous wine. Exquisite tension and finesse with an almost Burgundian texture, yet it's Napa in its soul with ripe fruit, stones, spices and Chinese tea leaf flavors. Mesmerizing aromas of flowers, bark, currants and blackberries.
