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Open 10:00 to 4:30
Appt required? No
Last barlinwine.com visit: 2011
Directions:
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Tasting:
The beautiful Robert Young estate house overlooks their small tasting room and distribution center. Robert Young typically produces fewer than 1000 cases of each wine, and so it's certainly a limited production. DOn't be fooled by the rocks that they got, though -- they're still Robbie from the block. Robert Young does all production on site in a large white barn-like structure. The tiny tasting room is attached to the production facility -- you can see it in on the right in the picture below. Inside the tasting room, 4-6 guests can taste comfortably. They will also sometimes do sit-down tastings outside for wine club members.
At our first trip to Robert Young, we tried a flight of Chardonnay ('05, '06, and '07), a Merlot, a flight of their Scion Cabernet ('03, '04, and '05), and finished with their Red Winery Road Cabernet blend. The staff was incredibly friendly and unpretentious.
We returned a few years later and tasted again with Jeff Noel. A former Robert Young employee, Herman, was also in the tasting room kibitzing with Jeff, and so we got a great perspective on how things truly worked at Robert Young. Herman had left for greener pastures at a different, larger winery, but you could tell the time away made him truly appreciate the craft and time that goes into RY wines.
For our second trip through, Jeff upped the Chardonnay flight to four wines ('06, '07, '08, and '09), we again tried the '07 Merlot (which was far better than I remembered), and finished with the '05, '06, and '07 Scion Cabernet. The winery temporarily stopped production on Red Winery Road (my previous favorite) given some low fruit yields and quality issues, so that wasn't available the second time through, but I was assured it will be back!
A few thoughts on my second visit to Robert Young. First, the '05 Scion had aged beautifully. The extra time in the bottle on the '05 turned this from a good wine to a great wine for me, and I was excited to see the evolution of the wine. Second, you really can't beat the friendliness and atmosphere at Robert Young. Tasting with Jeff Noel reminded me a lot of tasting with another Jeff -- of Frank Family Vineyards -- but the Frank Family Jeff circa 2001 before Frank Family started hanging banners on their winery sign touting their ability to drum up votes in a magazine poll ("#1 Napa Valley Tasting Room!"). I loved Frank Family in those days, and I'm happy I can once again have a small winery experience on par with what FFV used to be. Robert Young is showing no signs of exploding in size the way FFV did, and I couldn't be happier about it.
At our first trip to Robert Young, we tried a flight of Chardonnay ('05, '06, and '07), a Merlot, a flight of their Scion Cabernet ('03, '04, and '05), and finished with their Red Winery Road Cabernet blend. The staff was incredibly friendly and unpretentious.
We returned a few years later and tasted again with Jeff Noel. A former Robert Young employee, Herman, was also in the tasting room kibitzing with Jeff, and so we got a great perspective on how things truly worked at Robert Young. Herman had left for greener pastures at a different, larger winery, but you could tell the time away made him truly appreciate the craft and time that goes into RY wines.
For our second trip through, Jeff upped the Chardonnay flight to four wines ('06, '07, '08, and '09), we again tried the '07 Merlot (which was far better than I remembered), and finished with the '05, '06, and '07 Scion Cabernet. The winery temporarily stopped production on Red Winery Road (my previous favorite) given some low fruit yields and quality issues, so that wasn't available the second time through, but I was assured it will be back!
A few thoughts on my second visit to Robert Young. First, the '05 Scion had aged beautifully. The extra time in the bottle on the '05 turned this from a good wine to a great wine for me, and I was excited to see the evolution of the wine. Second, you really can't beat the friendliness and atmosphere at Robert Young. Tasting with Jeff Noel reminded me a lot of tasting with another Jeff -- of Frank Family Vineyards -- but the Frank Family Jeff circa 2001 before Frank Family started hanging banners on their winery sign touting their ability to drum up votes in a magazine poll ("#1 Napa Valley Tasting Room!"). I loved Frank Family in those days, and I'm happy I can once again have a small winery experience on par with what FFV used to be. Robert Young is showing no signs of exploding in size the way FFV did, and I couldn't be happier about it.
Recommended wine: The Chardonnay was smooth and buttery, with a hint of acidity on the finish in the younger vintages, but very consistent year-to-year. The Merlot was respectable (better than respectable the second time around), and the Cabernet was very good. My favorite wine was the Red Winery Road blend. This wine, dominated by Cabernet Franc but with healthy additions of Cabernet and Merlot had a smooth, delicious mouth feel and great flavor. This was the "wine of the day" of those that I tasted across 4 wineries the first trip. The '05 Scion may have taken this honor on my second trip.
Ratings (out of 5):
 WINE | 4.75 |  TASTING ROOM | 4.25 |
 ATMOSPHERE | 5.00 |  VALUE | 4.50 |
 OVERALL | 4.63 | ||
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