![]() ![]() Waiters are trained to bring the opened bottle of wine and stemware to the table on a silver tray and pour to the line. To assist restaurant personnel in pouring the correct amount, there is an “Opus line” on each glass. And a limited-edition signed and numbered Opus lithograph. Any customer ordering Opus would be served in the Austrian crystal glasses.Īlso in the kit: silver-plated coasters a silver-plated bottle jacket with a handle a silver-plated drip stop, and two cans of Private Preserve, a product designed to protect opened bottles from further oxidation. The kit contains Riedel glassware etched with the famed logo. Harrison developed a kit for key accounts (those who bought a sufficient supply of Opus One Harrison declines to say what the minimum is). He offered to contribute his elegant Bordeaux crystal stemware to the program, moving it into high gear. Then Georg Riedel, the Austrian stemware producer, heard of the Opus by-the-glass program. Harrison long had wanted to have Opus served in fine crystal stemware, but the cost was excessive. This year Opus One moved into the big leagues of entertainment/dining. It seemed to be a hit with young couples. Harrison developed lapel pins for waiters, and staffs were trained to suggest Opus. Patrons were supposed to be allowed to keep the carafe, but rarely did restaurateurs reveal this fact, and at first the program was only marginally successful.īut the idea was catching on. “Most nice wine glasses looked pretty empty with three ounces,” said Harrison, so the Opus carafe, with the profiles of the baron and Mondavi etched into it, was made a part of the program. The waiter would then pour the wine into the glass. When the by-the-glass program started, a patron would order a glass of Opus One, and it would be delivered in a small carafe beside a tall tulip glass. Today, less than 40% of the wine is sold that way. Well, it took off.”Īt the time, he thought the major part of Opus sales would be in specialty shops, sold to collectors. ![]() We started it mainly to familiarize people with the wine. ![]() “It became obvious to us that for a young wine that was quasi-collectible, this was an area of the market to investigate. When the program first began seven years ago, “most glasses of wine in restaurants were $3.50,” says Harrison. In reality, it is he, more than any winemaker or vineyardist, who is responsible for Opus’ by-the-glass success. Opus is sold not just as a wine but as an experience, and Opus One marketing director Stuart Harrison’s program plays that theme as no symphony orchestra could. And a big part of the reason they don’t mind this expenditure is the flourish with which Opus is served. At that rate, you’d be paying roughly $100 per bottle. It is young, fresh, tannic wine.Īnother shocking statistic about Opus One’s success in restaurants is that the suggested price for a three-ounce serving is $12. Yet virtually all of the Opus One served by the glass is the current vintage, which at present is 1991. Rarely does a wine sell anywhere near half its production in restaurants even more rarely does a wine sell this much in restaurants by the glass.Ĭonsider, too: Opus One is really a wine made to be stashed away and served only after a decade or two, when it has had sufficient age. This last fact alone makes Opus One an astounding and envied-and copied-success story. ![]()
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