Met friends for dinner and in keeping with my inventory reduction I brought two wines from my orphan bin.

1996 Opus One-I was never a fan of the over priced wine but I did buy it for a few years more out of curiosity. The wine was in perfect shape. Dark purple no signs of bricking or aging. Nose shows a bit of maturity with a firm cedar note over cassis and blackberry and a whiff of barnyard. A bit Bordeaux-like on the palate with a fair amount of woody cedary flavors. Plenty of black fruits and a slight mineral note on the finish. Fairly resolved tannins with a bit of dryness at the end. Not as bad as i thought. B+

2003 Gaja Sori San Lorenzo-Very dark reddish purple in the glass. I always find San Lorenzo to be the darkest and most fruit forward of Gaja's wines. Effusive nose of smoke and tar with black fruits and black coffee. Smooth on the palate, plummy and ripe (2003 was a fairly ripe vintage) Black cherry, cassis, coffee, anise in a fairly powerful package. I was with some Italian winemakers from Alto Adige and they swooned over the Gaja.

On 5/13/16 11:19 AM, Bi!! wrote:
> Met friends for dinner and in keeping with my inventory reduction I
> brought two wines from my orphan bin.
>
> 1996 Opus One-I was never a fan of the over priced wine but I did buy
> it for a few years more out of curiosity. The wine was in perfect
> shape. Dark purple no signs of bricking or aging. Nose shows a bit
> of maturity with a firm cedar note over cassis and blackberry and a
> whiff of barnyard. A bit Bordeaux-like on the palate with a fair
> amount of woody cedary flavors. Plenty of black fruits and a slight
> mineral note on the finish. Fairly resolved tannins with a bit of
> dryness at the end. Not as bad as i thought. B+

Hah! I've also found Opus overpriced and overhyped for what it was, but
recently I've read some notes on the older vintages of Opus from the
'80s that suggest that they do in fact turn into something attractive
with enough time in the bottle. I still think that they're overpriced,
though

Mark Lipton



--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.cwdjr.net

On Friday, May 13, 2016 at 11:46:52 AM UTC-4, Mark Lipton wrote:
> On 5/13/16 11:19 AM, Bi!! wrote:
> > Met friends for dinner and in keeping with my inventory reduction I
> > brought two wines from my orphan bin.
> >
> > 1996 Opus One-I was never a fan of the over priced wine but I did buy
> > it for a few years more out of curiosity. The wine was in perfect
> > shape. Dark purple no signs of bricking or aging. Nose shows a bit
> > of maturity with a firm cedar note over cassis and blackberry and a
> > whiff of barnyard. A bit Bordeaux-like on the palate with a fair
> > amount of woody cedary flavors. Plenty of black fruits and a slight
> > mineral note on the finish. Fairly resolved tannins with a bit of
> > dryness at the end. Not as bad as i thought. B+
>
> Hah! I've also found Opus overpriced and overhyped for what it was, but
> recently I've read some notes on the older vintages of Opus from the
> '80s that suggest that they do in fact turn into something attractive
> with enough time in the bottle. I still think that they're overpriced,
> though
>
> Mark Lipton
>
>
>
> --
> alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.cwdjr.net

In the book "The Rise and Fall of the House of Mondavi", Robert Mondavi recounts how he and Baron Rothschild priced the initial vintage of Opus One basically by doubling the price of the highest wine for sale in Napa. By doing so they created and entirely new pricing structure for Napa wines over $50/bottle. CUrrent vintages seem to be in the $250/bottle range. LOL.