oakville california usa appellation oakville ava founded 1978 first vintage 1979 key people robert mondavi co founder ; philippine de rothschild co owner ; michael silacci winemaker parent company bphr constellation brands cases yr 25 000 known for opus one varietals cabernet sauvignon cabernet franc merlot malbec petit verdot tasting by appointment website http www.opusonewinery.com opus one winery is a winery in oakville california united states . the wine was called napamedoc until 1982 when it was named opus one . the winery was founded as a joint venture between baron philippe de rothschild of ch teau mouton rothschild and robert mondavi to create a single bordeaux style blend based upon napa valley cabernet sauvignon . it is located across state route 29 from the robert mondavi winery . the creation of this winery venture in 1980 1 was big news in the wine industry ; de rothschild s involvement added an air of respectability to the burgeoning napa wine region . the first vintage 1979 was released in 1984 at the same time as the 1980 vintage . for a while it was the most expensive californian wine costing 50 usd . in 1989 a new winery was built just down the road the first vintage from the new winery was from 1991 and was released in 1994 . 2 history edit a bottle and glass of 1991 opus one the genesis of opus one wine can be traced to 1970 at the mauna kea beach hotel on the big island of hawaii where robert mondavi and baron philippe de rothschild met for the very first time and began their collaboration to merge old world and new world wine styles into one grand opus . 3 the joint venture between mondavi and baron rothschild was announced in 1980 though plans for the winery had been developing between the two men since the early 1970s . in 1980 mondavi sold 35 acres from his to kalon vineyard in the oakville ava to the joint venture that would serve as the backbone for the blend . the first vintage from this block was released in 1985 and soon the estate built the large limestone winery in oakville that has become an icon of the napa valley . 4 in the 1990s opus one became the california cult wine to be widely sold in asia and europe . following constellation brands 2004 takeover of robert mondavi winery the estate of baron rothschild negotiated with constellation brands control of marketing vineyard management and administration of the winery . 4 references edit opus one history accessed january 7th 2011 sullivan charles lewis 1998 . a companion to california wine . university of california press . p. 245 . http www.robertmondaviwinery.com about us milestones a b j. gordon ed opus vino pg 33 dk publishing new york 2010 isbn 978 0 7566 6751 1 external links edit opus one winery website coordinates 38 26 29 n 122 24 00 w 38.441287 n 122.399988 w 38.441287 ; 122.399988 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title opus one winery & oldid 742047843 categories wineries in napa valleycompanies based in napa county californiaamerican companies established in 1980food and drink companies established in 1980hidden categories coordinates on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch svenska edit links this page was last modified on 1 october 2016 at 10 21 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view