Opolo 2006 Mourvedre

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Opolo 2007 Mourvèdre

THE VINEYARD

The fruit for the 2007 Mourvèdre was sourced both from the estate vineyards on the east side of Paso Robles, and Long Shot Minx vineyard, also on the east side. The higher daytime temperatures and slightly drier climate at these locations result in a longer hang time for the fruit, and add tannic structure to the wine.

VINTAGE SUMMARY

The 2007 vintage offered ideal growing conditions. Weather during bloom offered a complete fruit set, and summer temperatures fluctuated normally with warm days and chilly nights. Fruit quality was excellent throughout the Paso Robles area for the 2007 vintage.

WINEMAKING PRACTICES

This small lot of Mourvèdre was crushed on 10/30/07 and fermented in open top fermentors which were punched-down twice daily until pressing nine days later. The resulting wine was inoculated for malo-lactic fermentation and was completed quickly. The wine was barreled-down into American oak barrels (1/3 of which were new) on November 29th, and was aged for nearly two years. The finished wine was filtered and bottled in May, 2010.

TASTING NOTES

Deeply colored, rustic and earthy,the 2007 Mourvèdre offers aromas of sweet red fruit with notes of clove, caramel and toast. Savory on the palate, the wine’s subtle smokiness is balanced by a bright acidity and firm tannins. This wine is drinkable now, or able to be cellared for up to three years.

TECHNICAL NOTES

APPELATION: Paso Robles

ALCOHOL: 14%

pH: 4.1

HARVEST METHOD: Hand-harvested

VARIETAL COMPOSITION: 100% Mourvedre

TA (g/100ml): .6

BRIX AT HARVEST: 24.4

OAK: American, French, and Eastern European

BARREL AGING: 30 months

CASES PRODUCED: 115

A rich and layered estate Mourvèdre... the Opolo rendition is a testament to this intriguing varietal grown in complex soils of Paso Robles. The fruit for the 2007 Mourvedre was sourced from Opolo estate vineyards located on the east side of Paso Robles, a region offering its unique character to the wine. The higher daytime temperatures and slightly drier climate at these locations result in a longer hang-time and ripening for the fruit. As a varietal, though, Mourvèdre is characteristically very late to ripen. Mourvèdre as a cultivated wine variety actually originated in Spain, where it is also called Mataró or Monastrell. Mourvèdre is now best known as being a component of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

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Opolo 2007 Mouvedre

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The Opolo Mourvèdre is intensely hued, rich and velvety with aromas of dark red fruits -- a luscious wine when grown in ideal areas. The skin of Mourvèdre is particularly high in antioxidants, which allow Mourvèdre-based wines to age well despite their relatively supple tannins.

Nearly all of Opolo wines are estate vintages, meaning that they are made from grapes grown by the winery. The central operation comprises of 98 rolling Westside vineyards in as idyllic a setting as the beautiful Paso Robles area offers. The climate here owes a great debt to the nearby Pacific Ocean.

The cooling effect of the marine layer accounts for temperature swings – the diurnal range – that can be as great as 50 degrees from afternoon highs to morning lows. This great disparity in temperatures enables the fruit to enjoy a much longer “hang time” and encourages high sugar levels and concentration of flavors.

With the very best in fruit available to them, Opolo has chosen an interesting path to wine making. Curiously, Opolo does not employ a wine maker as such. It’s a group effort. Everyone, from owners to “cellar rats” have a say in the wine production.

The belief at Opolo is that this approach makes for consumer-friendly wines that appeal to many people. There is no dependency on one person’s palate although Rick Quinn and Dave Nichols, co-owners, have the final vote.

It was a love of wine and winemaking and a mutual vision that life is wine country that was the entrée between Opolo owners Rick Quinn and Dave Nichols. Their two families have lived side-by-side in Camarillo, CA since 1996. As Nichols remembers, “I knew Rick to say hello to, but that was about it. Then one day, he said to me, ‘Hey Dave, I just planted 10,000 grapevines!’ “ The rockets went off -- and so began the odyssey of Opolo, one of Paso Robles’ most outstanding wineries. Their estate vineyards are in the Adelaida hills west of Paso Robles. The vineyards have been producing fruit since 1998. The Dudes of Mourvèdre “We both love to make wine, and have made our own ‘backyard’ wine for some time,” said Nichols. For Quinn, that “some time” dates back to his childhood in Minnesota. “I grew up in Duluth, in an Italian, Serbian, and Croatian neighborhood.” Quinn recalled. “Our families would make wine from grapes we’d ordered from California that would be delivered in a boxcar. We didn’t have any of this ‘pick in the early morning and crush a couple of hours later.’ By the time we got the grapes they were already fermenting!” Indeed, the name Opolo is a nod to Quinn’s Yugoslavian heritage, and is actually the name of a blended rose-style wine found on the Dalmatian Coast. However, Quinn and Nichols have no plans to actually produce that wine, so we’ll have to be content to just enjoy the name on the label. Quinn moved to California in 1979, and continued to pursue his love of wine and winemaking. He began to source grapes from quality growers, such as Fratelli Perata in Paso Robles. “I got wonderful fruit from them, but in 1995 they said they just didn’t have any Merlot to spare, so I went out and bought some Westside vineyard property sight unseen, to assure I’d always have a source of grapes.” Though the impetus for buying that first parcel of vineyard was having grapes for his own winemaking, Quinn has always sold the vast majority of his crop to other labels. Quinn’s and Nichols’ vineyards sell fruit to quality labels such as Hess Collection, St Supery, Harrison Vineyards, Wild Horse, Castoro Cellars, and Fetzer. Most of the fruit from Quinn’s and Nichols’ vineyards will continue to be sold to those other labels, but the pairs’ estate vineyards will be a major source of fruit for the Opolo label. This is a situation that both Nichols and Quinn relish. “It really helps us as vineyard owners to get direct feedback about the wines we’re producing from our vineyards,” explained Nichols. “We want to make great wines, and the more information we can get, the more we can control the viticultural process and find out what we’re doing right.” Quinn agreed, saying “we obviously want to optimize our farming methods to produce excellent fruit, and because we have total control of the vineyards, we can apply the methods we believe will produce the absolute best quality fruit and, therefore, the best possible wine.” 1999 marked the first commercial crush under the Opolo label, when Quinn and Nichols produced Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, and Muscat Canelli. Quinn and Nichols have essentially taken over the viticulture and winemaking duties.