Waipara West Sauvignon Blanc 2019

SAUVIGNON BLANC | 2019
Casablanca Valley
Organic Wine

COMPOSITION
100% Sauvignon Blanc

WINEMAKER’S NOTES
Grapes are harvested at night in order to maintain fresh and bright acidity. The fruit goes straight to the press, where the juice sits for 24 hours. Then it is racked and separated from its gross lees and fermented clean at a low temperature in stainless steel tanks, ensuring multilayers of aromas and flavors.

2019 VINTAGE
An excellent harvest in the Casablanca Valley. The moderate temperatures during spring, without significant rains, allowed for good bud break and flowering. During summer there were no large diurnal temperatures, benefitting the ripening curve and helping maintain the freshness of the fruit in this zone. Harvest was pushed up by 10 days with respect to last year, and with lower yields that produced intense aromatics and flavors, producing fresh, intense wines with balanced acidity and a long finish.

In the tradition of many great Bordeaux estates, Opus One produces a fine second wine called Overture. Like the introduction of a great musical piece, Overture, the wine, presents elements of the exceptional work itself, although certainly not in its entirety or full complexity.

Since 1993, we have created Overture as a result of our highly selective process for Opus One. We meticulously cultivate each section of our estate vineyard with the attention to detail and singular focus required to produce Opus One. This diligence carries through the extensive blending process, and not all wine-lots from our estate are chosen for the final Opus One blend.

Yet, when these remaining lots are afforded additional time in French oak barrels, coupled with the added flexibility of blending across multiple vintages, the final wine, Overture, achieves remarkable elegance, complexity and approachability.

As a natural extension of the creation of Opus One, Overture’s varietal composition evolves based on the lot selections made for each vintage. Overture reflects the proportion of Bordeaux-heritage grape varieties planted on our estate: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec. Uniquely, Overture captures the essence of our estate across vintages; therefore the exact blend and cellar approach will always differ from Opus One.