2009 Opitz One, Willi Opitz

Burgenland, Austria

The Noble Rebel of Neusiedl.

Lush, exotic and gloriously indulgent, the 2009 Opitz One is a sweet red wine that defies convention and delights the senses. Deep garnet in colour, it opens with a kaleidoscope of black cherry, fig, and wild strawberry, laced with notes of cocoa, cedar and warm spice. The palate is rich and velvety, brimming with ripe, confit fruit balanced by supple tannins and a whisper of acidity that keeps everything in elegant motion. Luxurious yet playful, it finishes with a lingering echo of dark chocolate and sweet red berries, proof that decadence can still be beautifully poised.

For when: you want to surprise even the most jaded palate.
Pairs with: blue cheese, dark chocolate desserts, or late-night storytelling.
If this wine were a song, it’d be Bohemian Rhapsody, daring, layered, and impossible not to love.

Willi Opitz, the maverick master of Illmitz in Austria’s Burgenland, is world-renowned for pushing boundaries in the art of sweet winemaking. Situated near Lake Neusiedl, his family-run estate benefits from the region’s ideal conditions for noble rot and late-harvest production, misty mornings, warm afternoons, and long, gentle ripening seasons.

The Opitz One is his most unconventional creation: a sweet red blend crafted from late-harvested Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch grapes, painstakingly selected berry by berry and fermented to luscious perfection. Its balance of opulence and freshness has earned cult status among collectors and sommeliers alike. The 2009 vintage, warm, generous, and ripe, delivered extraordinary concentration and richness, making this one of the most hedonistic yet harmonious expressions of Willi Opitz’s fearless

Whats in the bottle
Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch

Notable Awards
95-point rating from Falstaff

£125.00
Taxes included.

Complete the look:

Riedel Vinum Port/Dessert Wine Glass - Set of 2

£43.95

  • Producer Information

On the misty eastern shores of Lake Neusiedl, where noble rot thrives and sweet wines have long been a way of life, Willi Opitz has carved out a reputation as one of Austria’s most distinctive and inventive winemakers. Since founding his small family estate in Illmitz in 1995, Opitz has become a cult figure in the world of botrytised wines, part craftsman, part alchemist, transforming meticulously selected grapes into some of Europe’s most seductive dessert wines.

The estate’s vineyards, planted on the gentle slopes near the lake, enjoy a unique microclimate of humid mornings and warm, breezy afternoons, perfect conditions for the development of Botrytis cinerea (noble rot). From these tiny, shrivelled berries, Opitz creates Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese of extraordinary concentration and purity, often vinified in minute quantities and by hand from start to finish. His hallmark style combines luscious richness with striking freshness, a balance achieved through low yields, patient harvesting, and slow, temperature-controlled fermentations that can last for months.

While best known for his botrytised marvels, Opitz is also an innovator, an early pioneer of “Schilfwein” (straw wine), and even a maker of music-themed cuvées for artists such as Pink Floyd and Formula 1 teams. Yet at its heart, the estate remains a deeply personal, artisanal operation: family-run, passionately sustainable, and driven by a singular mission, to capture the fleeting beauty of noble rot and bottle it as something timeless.

2009 Opitz One, Willi Opitz

£125.00

•

Free South Wales delivery on orders over £100

•

Free UK delivery on orders over £175.
  • Austria