Opus One 2016: The Bordeaux Aristocrat Who Went Full Napa Rockstar

Alright, pull up a stool. Forget the polite chatter about California ambition and French elegance. I’m talking about Opus One 2016, the wine born from a truce between two giants—Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Robert Mondavi—that ended up making a wine that’s better than the sum of its pedigreed parts. This isn't some polite, over-analyzed library piece; it’s a perfectly sculpted muscle car of a wine. If you think Napa is all velvet glove and no fist, this 2016 vintage is here to punch you in the jaw and then kiss it better with an ounce of pure, unadulterated pleasure. You came here for the deep cut, so let’s get into why this bottle is the high-stakes table you want to play at.

The Midnight Hour in the Glass

Pour it. The color is a deep, brooding, obsidian ruby, the kind of black that swallows all light and hints at secrets buried deep. It's the shade of a Greek midnight under a new moon. Swirl it and the aromas start climbing out of the glass like a smoke signal over the Napa Valley. This is pure, unapologetic Cabernet fruit—black plum, blackcurrant preserve, and ripe mulberry—but it’s dressed up in a tuxedo. Then the magic trick: crushed graphite, dark cocoa dust, fresh-turned earth, and a cool, herbal flicker of bay leaf and dried sage. There's new oak here, sure, but it’s not perfume; it's a foundation—cedar and vanilla that act like a perfect drumbeat. The whole thing smells like wealth and discretion. If you’re not taking a deeper inhale, check to see if you still have a soul.

The Palate: The Silk Scarf and The Whipcord

This is where the money is, friend. Opus One 2016 hits the palate with a simultaneous sense of opulence and restraint that is just damn masterful. It’s bone dry, naturally, but the fruit concentration makes you question everything you thought you knew about sweetness. The body is full, but it carries its weight like a Greek god walking on clouds—effortlessly, without stumbling. Flavors rush in—dark chocolate ganache, ripe cassis, black cherry, followed by savory notes of fresh tobacco, black olive, and that beautiful, iron-rich minerality from the loam and clay soil. The structure is the real headline: the tannins are fine-grained, tensile, and endless. They aren’t grippy; they’re velvet-wrapped wire, leading to a finish that just won’t quit. It’s a long, warm, insistent echo of dark fruit and polished stone. This wine doesn't finish; it sets up residence.

The Unrepeatable Alchemy of the Terroir

Opus One has always been about taking Bordeaux’s blueprint and building a palace on the best dirt in Napa. The original vision was simple, audacious, and a little insane: make a single, world-class cru on the famed To Kalon Vineyard property. That’s the pedigree. But the real story is the 2016 vintage. This was a gift from Mother Nature, a "Goldilocks" year where the gods actually smiled. A mild spring, perfect flowering, followed by a long, steady, and crucially cool summer with no heat spikes. This meant the grapes ripened slowly, accumulating complexity, color, and flavor without sacrificing the all-important acidity. That cool hang time is why the 2016 has this coiled, muscular tension—it’s the difference between a sprinter and a marathon runner. It allowed them to capture the power of Napa sun and the discipline of Bordeaux structure. In short, they didn’t just grow great grapes; they captured a perfect Napa season in a bottle, and that, my friend, is why this vintage matters.

Don’t Just Pair It: Commit to the Pairing

Forget the polite steakhouse menu. We're here to feast. Serve this at a cool 62-65°F (17°C) in a large Bordeaux glass. Decant it for at least two hours; this wine is a diva, and she needs time to change out of her traveling clothes.

For the carnivore: You need to match the wine’s intensity. Think a thick-cut, dry-aged, charcoal-grilled ribeye—the perfect char provides the bitter counterpoint to the wine’s deep fruit, and the fat acts like a silken slide for those formidable tannins.

For the savory-minded: Find its savory echo. A classic pairing is slow-braised short ribs finished with a dark, bitter-chocolate demi-glace. The wine’s cocoa and black fruit notes lock arms with the sauce; the generous body matches the richness of the meat.

And for the quiet end of the night? A square of high-quality aged Comté or Gorgonzola Piccante. The salt and nutty crystallization of the cheese cuts the wine’s texture; the blue mold embraces the earth and savory tobacco notes. Skip the cheesecake.

Buy Now. Age Longer. Brag Forever.

Let's talk brass tacks. The 2016 is a blue-chip collectible because it’s a masterpiece vintage from an iconic house. The critical praise is universal—we’re talking high-90s scores across the board, the kind of love letters that make the auction market pay attention. This is not a curiosity; it’s an asset.

• Scarcity: Yes, it’s Opus One, so there’s enough to go around—but a benchmark vintage is always allocated and the price curve is steady. You’re not buying a lottery ticket; you’re buying a blue-chip stock.
• Aging Potential: This wine is built for the cellar. The beautiful acidity and the structured tannins are the scaffolding for decades of development. I’m giving it a Drinking Window of 2028–2055+. Drink a bottle now with a long decant to see its power, then forget the rest in the dark for 10 years and watch the poetry emerge.

The Final, Unfiltered Word

You have a choice. You can scroll, buy a decent Cabernet that will be a polite guest at your table, or you can step into the light. Opus One 2016 is the rare bottle that delivers on the hype, justifies the price tag, and leaves a memory that lingers long after the wine is gone. It's Napa's perfected paradox: power and elegance, velvet and iron. Do not pass up this vintage. Regret is a nasty sediment in the glass of life, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Acquire a case, cellar half, and drink the other half with people who understand what they’re tasting. Don't be the cautionary tale.