Overture sold out, we begged for more, alas, no love there… BUT Opus One is back for a few hours!

If you’ve ever walked out of a dealership on 9/30 with a brand new ride for $10k under sticker price and wondered what just happened… the salesman needed to sell just one more car before the end of the quarter to hit their quota.

Well we’re that salesman and today’s your lucky day.

So here’s your Maserati at cost.

*One of the reasons why we can offer great deals is because of discretion, but the more it gets out there, the harder it is for us to get these wines…And listen - as much as you might be tempted, PLEASE don’t tell anyone what you pay for Opus One, lest the well go dry. Just tell them you paid the $500 price - it’ll sound more like a flex that way. We want to stay offering this legend when we can at these prices.

This wine needs no introduction or explanation. The product of Robert Mondavi & Baron Philippe de Rothschild is never cheap. But as always, we have the best price anywhere – albeit on a VERY LIMITED number of bottles. We begged for more, and we got a wee bit more, like 24 bottles more. (which isn’t much) We were actually surprised by this especially with the 2023 vintage…

Jeb Dunnuck called his 2023 report “A Brilliant Vintage” adding that it’s “…truly exceptional and singular…”

As always, it brings a big breadth of scores… QUAD 98 Points for now, more to come. Overdue for another 100! Wine of the Year? You heard it here first!

Under the direction of winemaker Michael Silacci (with Opus One since 2001), the team has pushed the envelope further each year. With 2023, they brought in clay amphorae AND tested a brand new native yeast the team nicknamed ‘Monkee.’ AND kicked off Opus One’s regenerative farming initiatives.

Silacci filled one amphora with the untested Monkee yeast, and when that ferment started smelling funky, he passed on a rescue strain and just sent in “more Monkee friends.” It finished clean, and DNA testing later confirmed it was a true native yeast. 🐒

Silacci retires after the 2026 harvest, so 2023 is one of his last vintages and seriously…??? he’s still playing in the sandbox after 25 years at Opus. What a way to close some of the final chapters in his Opus career, especially with the scores, the experimentation with the “Monkee yeasts”, adding clay amphora, regenerative farming practices and working with this monumental legendary vintage… Kudos Silacci, we salute you! You deserve it and more!

Those are some tough shoes to fill!

As mentioned, 2023 was a bit of a change: clay amphorae joined the lineup for part of the harvest, and the wine then spent 19 months in French oak. As usual Cabernet leads, with supporting roles by other Bordeaux grapes.

Beautiful purity of fruit radiates from the glass with macerated cherries, pomegranate, violets, pansies, orange zest, graphite, camphor and minerality galore. It’s really hard to tear your nose away to take a sip! But once you do, it is layer upon layer of intricate complexities; crushed black raspberry, cassis, pencil lead, with a yin and yang balance. As hard as it was to tear our noses away from the glass, the palate is long, texturally engaging, integrated, ripe tannins, great acidity, medium to almost full bodied. It’s just EXQUISITE!

Obviously, you can enjoy it now after at least a few hours of breathing in a decanter. But we encourage you to give it a few years, if not a decade or longer, and it will really sing.

MEOW! Just testing to see if you’re still reading this?! Why are you? The few cases we have may already be gone.

98 Points – Decanter “The bouquet is utterly enticing, offering cool blue-fruit notes and a dusting of cocoa-powder freshness that stirs anticipation for the first sumptuous sip. On the palate, satiny richness unfolds, imbued with crunchy red cherry and juicy blackberry fruit, alongside refined sagebrush and tobacco nuances. There is a sense of intricately fine-knit tannins – compact yet impressively integrated at this youthful stage – framed by subtle, refined oak spice. The finish is long and mineral, marked by graphite and a touch of black sea salt. The wine was fermented entirely with native yeasts in stainless steel, with a portion aged in amphora in this vintage, before maturing for 19 months in 95% new French oak. The blend is rounded out by small additions of Malbec and Petit Verdot. In 2023, the vines were farmed regeneratively for the first time, with harvest completed by mid-October. Drinking Window 2026 - 2050”

98 Points – Vinous “The 2023 Opus One is a super classic wine. Brisk acids, fine tannins and lifted aromatics signal an Opus One of exquisite finesse and class. Red/purplish fruit, mint, orange peel and chalk are all woven together in a fabric of nearly indescribable class. The 2023 floats on the palate with understated finesse and lightness, but it’s not light in any way. This is class personified.”

98 Points – Jeb Dunnuck “Another absolute gorgeous wine from this team, the 2023 Opus One offers up cassis, black raspberries, spicy wood, flowers, and graphite in a beautifully layered, complex, nuanced bouquet. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, with a pure, layered mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and integrated acidity, this ultra-classic, elegant Opus One will keep for 30-40 years. It’s at the same level as the 2010, 2016, and 2021. Drink 2025-2065.”

98 Points – Inside Bordeaux “A measured, balanced growing season, dry but without the heat spikes of 2022, and this Opus is a pretty stately beast, deep rich purple, intense, structured, edges of violet set against black fruits, cassis, bilberry, damson. This is one of the slowest unrolls that I have had with Opus, it rewards patience to showcase the chalk and slate texture of the tannins, and you can safely put this away for a few years before drinking. Cabernet Sauvignon dominant in terms of its construction and architecture, 95% new oak. A long slow harvest in this exceptional year, from September 14 to October 16, Michael Silacci winemaking director. Sustainable farming initiatives significantly increased in this year, with the addition of Kimberlee Marrineli to the team, including planting of cover crops across the vineyard to lower soil temperature. The oak is a little higher than in the Overture but less evident in the aromatics. Drink 2026-2048.”