Deep garnet colored, the 2014 Opus One opens with youthful notes of warm blackberries, chocolate-covered cherries, redcurrant jelly and blackcurrant pastilles with hints of bay leaves, tobacco leaf and underbrush. Medium to full-bodied, firm and grainy with a lively backbone and tightly wound black and red berry layers, it finishes with a compelling herbal lift.

The 2014 Opus One has turned out to be a gorgeous wine. Savory, tightly wound and intensely aromatic, the 2014 is going to need time to unwind, but it looks like it will develop along the more classic vintages here. The tannins are firm but also impeccably balanced. A sleeper wine for the year, the 2014 is shaping up to be a gorgeous wine that will handsomely repay several decades of cellaring. The 2014 is not an obvious Opus One, like the 2010, 2012 or 2013, but over time, I will not be surprised if it challenges or even surpasses some of those vintages. In short, the 2014 is a wine of tension, power and grace.

The texture of the tannins sits somewhere between slate and velvet, filled out by creamy blackberry fruit, laced with cappuccino, intense espresso, liquorice, rosemary, crushed rocks and black pepper. In a sweet spot where you can begin to drink at full maturity, although once again worth a reminder that these wines are way too often drunk too young, and you should be totally confident in putting it away for another five years at least. Harvest September 5 to October 7, Michael Silacci director, 100% new oak for ageing, 20 days skin contact.

80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 5% Merlot, 2% Malbec. Aged for 18 months in new French barriques. Lively, lightly leafy with a rich base. Just what I want! (JR)