Producing area: Napa Valley, California

Representative wine: Opus One genuine brand

In the first Napa Valley Wine Festival in 1981 At auction, a single case of wine from the joint venture sold for $24,00—a record price for a California wine. In 1982, Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild began designing the trademark. They agreed to choose a Latin-derived word for the joint venture that would be understandable to both English and French speakers. Baron Philippe announced his choice as "Opus" which musically denotes the composer's first masterpiece. Two days later he added another word to form "Opus One".

The 1979 and 1980 vintages were launched simultaneously in 1984 as the first launch of Opus One. Opus One has since gained fame as America's first ultra-premium wine, establishing the category of wines priced above $50.