Opus One 2015

Composed of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot and 2% Malbec, Opus One's 2015 Proprietary Red Wine is truly an iron fist in a velvet glove, delivering a powerhouse of flavors and structure with a seductively plush texture. It opens with a deep garnet-purple color and wonderfully spicy notes of cinnamon stick, cloves and fenugreek with a core of cherry preserves, redcurrant jelly, blackberry pie and warm plums plus hints of camphor, lavender and cigar box. Full-bodied, rich and bold in the mouth, it fills the palate with exotic spice-laced black and red fruits, framed by firm, beautifully ripe, grainy tannins and great freshness, finishing with epic persistence. Although it is already approachable, allow it another 3-5 years in bottle for its myriad of subtle accents to fully blossom and then drink it over the next 30+ years.

1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 2% Malbec vinified separately but with an average of 21 days' maceration and 18 months ageing in new French oak. I think we can assume that Michael Silacci and his team were allowed to spare no expense. Very warm, dry year, the warmest since 2008, with only a single February storm to fill dams between the end of 2014 and harvest. There were two periods of cooler weather; one during flowering resulted in relatively small clusters and another in very early September just after the start of a protracted harvest that lasted until 8 October. To be offered on the Bordeaux Place on Monday 3 September. (The 2014 was about €225 a bottle en primeur.)

Somehow Silacci and Co have managed to produce a wine that does not taste as though it's the produce of a drought and heatwave and needs the microscope required to read the alcohol level on most Napa Valley wines to discern that it is indeed 15% alcohol. Freshness is the overriding impression - thank you, Pacific Ocean and your nightly visits, presumably. There is little suggestion of anything super ripe or heady. The crimson is distinctly transparent and the nose, as well as transmitting freshness, is appetising and cedar. This is a fresh, direct wine that developed some spiciness in the glass. It is extraordinarily broachable already, although is certainly best drink with food thanks to its light charge of neat tannins. There is some sweetness but no obvious heaviness. This seems to nicely exemplify the new, fresher Napa Valley school.