100-POINT CABERNET: OPUS ONE, QUINTESSA, OVID
NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA 2021
We're on a constant quest for perfection, and we exult when we find it … but when we find it three times in one vintage?
That’s cause for jubilation.
Clock it: a trio of perfect 100-point wines — all from a great 2021 vintage, and from three of Napa Valley’s greatest names: Opus One, Quintessa, and OVID.
And folks, believe me when I tell you: the points don’t begin to do justice to these wines.
Jane Anson, who rarely dispenses perfect scores, was moved to raptures by this vintage of Opus — "a brilliant Opus,” she wrote, “concentrated and yet delicate" that "captures the spirit of early Opus, when it moved forward the conversation of what Napa could be." Wine Enthusiast was just as enamored of the Quintessa, lavishing it with the loftiest of adjectives: an “exquisite wine … refined, detailed and delicious.” Decanter seldom drifts into lyrical indulgence, but it delivered a clear and uncertain judgment of the OVID, declaring it “a pedigreed wine characterized by balance, intensity, and complexity."
So what cosmic alignment created this trifecta of perfection?
The 2021 growing season in Napa played out like a winemaker's fantasy — perfect conditions, ideal ripening, the kind of year that makes even the most stoical of vineyard managers crack a smile.
But Mother Nature only sets the stage; it takes so much more than that to create perfection.
We’ve spent enough time in these cellars to witness the obsessive and loving attention each of these three winemakers brings to their craft. Michael Silacci and his team at Opus One sort grapes with the precision of diamond cutters, and pursue an ideal, in the cellar, of seamless integration. At Quintessa, Rebekah Wineburg possesses the patience of a chess grandmaster; she's been known to harvest the same block six separate times, waiting for each section to reach its perfect moment. Meanwhile, up on Pritchard Hill, Austin Peterson approaches OVID's Clone 4 Cabernet plantings with the flexibility of a jazz musician, letting each vintage dictate the shape of the composition rather than forcing any sort of formula.
All three are more artist than artisan, understanding that greatness emerges from hundreds of tiny, almost invisible decisions.
Also, that greatness can’t be faked, or forced, or rushed, and that it comes along only every so often … if you’re lucky.
We can’t wait for you to taste for yourself what has us so excited.
All three bottles will reward both the patient collector (who enjoys delayed gratification) and also those, like me, who can’t resist easing back the corks right now.
And remember, as always, we only buy and source directly from the estate, to ensure perfect provenance.
Perfect provenance … perfect wines.
You better believe these are going to disappear from here faster than free food at a gallery opening. So, don’t delay; secure yours today!