Opus One Barrel Room

'Super 8' Series: Shane Black's Memories

"I came across my first Super 8 camera that was buried in back of my Dad's closet. It was a hand-crank number, and you had to load it by feel in a dark room.

I'd like to say the possibilities were endless, but after a few minutes of artistic soul-searching, we'd invariably return to the dog-as-superhero motif. The baby-powder-in-the-toy-gun-barrel trick worked swell visually, although why bad guys would physically shake their guns, as though the bullet were trapped and needed help, was hard to explain.

The true joy, of course, was involving parents. Habitually glum Dad (people told him he had a cop's face) soared to new heights of mugging. I was the Six Million Dollar Man, and he was never so busy he couldn't stop and fight using pool sweepers.

The footage -- sadly, more exciting than the actual show -- was to prepare me for my 10-minute anthill opus. Basically, I was bad.

Where is the film now? Who knows -- the land, or possibly the ocean. The biggest clue that something lay down that path for me was that, at a time when developing took a week, not a second ... waiting on those dailies was excruciating.

And, looking back, if I were smart, I'd have involved the neighborhood girls, rather than a dubious collection of stray animals. Then again, would the girls have worn the cape? Likely not.

Visiting Opus One in Napa Valley

Expectation can be a heavy burden to live up to. Whether it’s a film, book, a bottle of wine or an athlete’s performance, anything perceived as less that the anticipated result comes off as a let down. The same of course can be true for winery visits. Producers of all shapes and size the world over open their doors and invite folks in to taste their wares and perhaps tour their facility. Sometimes it’s easier to be wowed when you know nothing of the wine or the producer in question. Again, with a lack of expectation it’s somewhat easier to impress people. Folks in all lines of work do this all the time; under promise and over deliver, it’s a classic time honored technique. But with many of the world’s wineries, particularly the well known ones, their reputation is known and the expectation level exists. Such is the case with Napa Valley’s Opus One .

Last month I paid to Opus One with some friends. I’d been their once before and recalled it fondly, but it had been about 7 or 8 years so the details were dull. The wine itself is of course the stuff of legend. Founded in 1979 by Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild the goal from the outset was simple, greatness. These two legends of their respective wine worlds came together in Napa Valley to make one wine that would compete with the best of the best. It was to be an offering in the great Bordeaux style using the classic varieties which also flourish in Napa Valley. Pretty much from the outset the wines have been praised, setting the bar even higher.

So as my friends and I approached Opus One each of us had different ideas about what we’d find inside, but certainly we all had lofty expectations. Keeping that in mind it’s impressive to say the least that we were all knocked out by the experience. Our tour guide Yasko was part of the greatness of our visit. She’s been with Opus One for a few years and knows the history of the project amazingly well and answered every question we had. But well beyond that the grandeur of the facility is hard to miss. Everything about Opus One is as precisely as it was masterminded, regal and impressive. If I had a nickel for every barrel room I’ve seen on winery tours, well I’d have quite a few nickels. They come in all styles and sizes but at the end of the day not many of them make my jaw drop. I’d seen the barrel room at Opus One before, but still it was a sight to behold. The same came be said for the tank room and other pieces of the wine making facility. The entrance, the tasting area and essentially every last square inch of Opus One is on a different rung than most wineries. It’s intended to be both a working winery and a knock your socks off showplace and it succeeds admirably at both of those things.

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