Inside Opus One: Chef-Driven Pairings Meet Napa's Most Iconic Wine

Forbes

2 days ago

Opus One Winery has always carried a certain gravity in Napa Valley. The estate's Bordeaux-style blend put Oakville on the map as a global benchmark, and decades later its reputation still draws collectors and first-time visitors alike. From the start, it was a collaboration between France and California, born in 1978 from the vision of Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Robert Mondavi. That balance between Old World and New still defines the estate today, not only in the cellar but now in the kitchen.
Chef Sean Koenig, who cut his teeth at The French Laundry and Atelier Crenn before joining Opus One, approaches pairing not as ornamentation but as dialogue. His job is not to compete with the wine. It is to reveal something in it you might not otherwise notice.
'Our philosophy as a culinary team is to celebrate the distinct qualities of our wine in restrained yet unexpected ways,' Koenig says. 'Pairing food with wine leads to an added dimension not just to the wine but to the overall experience for our guests. Taking a dish and creating harmony with a glass of Opus One creates a memorable framework for highlighting and accentuating our wine.'
Seasonality shapes that framework. Koenig avoids the cliché of steak alongside cabernet. Instead, he draws from the estate's two gardens, which provide vegetables, herbs, fruits, and edible flowers while also creating biodiversity and supporting pollinators. 'We pride ourselves on going beyond more classic boundaries of 'meat and potatoes' style pairings,' he says, 'and encouraging our guests to try unique and sometimes unexpected ingredients paired with our wines to encourage questions, discussion, and curiosity.'
One dish he points to often is pâté en croûte. 'It is a very classic French dish rooted in tradition and techniques passed on through multiple generations and one we honor past traditions but through the lens of contemporary Northern California cuisine,' Koenig says. The winery's version layers in quail from Devil's Gulch, chicken from Fogline in Pescadero, and pork raised by Future Farmers of America participants at the Napa County Fair. The result is a French classic reframed through California terroir, echoing the Franco-American partnership that birthed Opus One itself.
Each vintage demands its own approach. Some years call for harmonizing, others for contrast. 'Our process of pairing different vintages is quite intuitive,' Koenig explains. 'We taste the wines and select specific aspects of that particular wine we either want to highlight and enhance, to harmonize a unique flavor profile between the food and the wine, or to encourage our guests to think differently about how food can pair with wine in general.'
That philosophy runs through the estate's offerings for visitors. The Estate Tasting at $125 is a focused introduction that moves from a rocky outcrop garden to a sleek tasting room, pouring two vintages of Opus One alongside Overture before finishing on the rooftop terrace with sweeping views of Oakville. The Opus One Experience at $200 brings guests into the Partners' Room, a private, art-filled space overlooking vineyard rows, where an Estate Ambassador leads a guided tasting of current and library vintages paired with small seasonal bites. For those seeking full immersion, the Art of the Table at $650 is offered only on select days. It is a two-and-a-half-hour, four-course lunch crafted by Koenig and his team, staged with the precision of fine dining but the intimacy of a salon dinner, a chance to see how the kitchen and cellar move in lockstep.
Opus One Winery's commitment extends beyond wine and food. The estate is Napa Green-certified for both its vineyards and winery, with sustainability practices embedded into daily operations. The same care that shapes the wines and the gardens also drives broader goals of stewardship, tying luxury to responsibility in a way that feels distinctly Napa Valley today.
Luxury in Napa can be loud. Opus One's version is quieter, built on restraint. The wines still set the tone, but the food now carries the conversation further, proving that a glass and a plate, when tuned to each other, can still feel like the rarest kind of art.