Opus One 2013 going down a storm

The 2013 vintage of Opus One was released to La Place in Bordeaux at the beginning of September.

It had an opening price of £1,100 per six or £2,200 per dozen. At that price it is being offered at the same price as the 2012 and 2011 vintages from the estate.

On the other hand, the wine has been highly praised by critics and merchants. Antonio Galloni called it “superb” and gave the wine a 94-96-point spread, while Robert Parker has said that: “2013 for many wineries in Napa and Sonoma has produced the finest wines I have tasted in 37 years”.

With Galloni’s score the wine looks very favourable in comparison to back vintages. The similarly scored 2008 for example is 15.6% more expensive per dozen.

The wine has gone down very well with merchants, with Goedhuis’ Georgina Crawley echoing already quoted declarations from négociants at La Place that, “we could have sold double what we did.”

Berry Bros & Rudd receives one of the largest allocations of any merchant in the UK. Yet, as buying director, Max Lalondrelle, told the drinks business: “Because of the demand for the wine and the size of our customer base we have had to allocate Opus for a number of years. 2013 is a strong vintage and therefore is no exception, six bottles per customer.

“Because of the demand we only made 120 bottle available to the web which were purchased very quickly by savvy customers, the rest was sold through our Cellar Plan or Fine Wine customers in the background.”

Crawley told db that Goedhuis for one has been working hard to increase its allocation in recent years and the wine’s reception “given the market’s fractiousness and exchange rate” has been “extremely positive”.

Echoing the praise from the likes of Galloni and Parker, merchants have been extremely positive about the wine’s quality. Crawley compared the 2012 and 2013 Opus One vintages to 2009 and 2010 Bordeaux, with the 2013 Opus One, “going to be much more of a wine to lay down, not like the 2012 which you could go to and drink.”